A lot of people out there want to say that Clemson is just that much better than us this year. They also want to say that Trevor Lawrence was by far the best player on the field, and that Dabo's coaching and program have just surpassed Saban and Alabama. The thing is, South Carolina dropped 600 yards and 35 points on them. Kellen Mond lit them up for 430 yards. Does anybody truly believe either of them are better than us? Of course not. Does anybody truly believe that if we played again this week, that they would beat us by 28? Anybody being honest with themselves knows that not true.
What Miller is saying is completely true. Our team checked out (and apparently a lot of coaches did too) after we beat OU. A lot of people felt like if Bama could stop Murray and OU, and that we could show up and beat Clemson. Again, they struggled against TAMU and USCe, and played a schedule of cupcakes. The players bought into that, and they faced a highly motivated team playing with a chip on their shoulder and they got their butt beat. Even after the first half, Most everybody believed Bama would go into the locker room and come out and show Clemson that they were dealing with the mighty Bama, ala the UGA game. The truth is though Bama had won their last 2 games after playing sloppy, undisciplined, and really just flat all the way around.
Complacency is a real thing, and it bit us hard this year. We were so good this year and that hurt us in that we were able to play pretty sloppy football a lot of the time and get by with it.