Rhett Lashlee matched Brent Venables in 2016 when Auburn played Clemson

Rhett Lashlee will matchup against Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables for the second time when the Miami Hurricanes play the Tigers on Saturday night.

Miami Hurricanes offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee will matchup against Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables for the second time in their careers when the teams play Saturday night. Lashlee previously coached against Venables in 2016 when he was the offensive coordinator at Auburn and they played Clemson.

Brent Venables and the Clemson defense got the better of Rhett Lashlee and the Auburn offense in a game that was much closer than expected. Clemson entered the game ranked second in the nation against unranked Auburn. The numbers for the Auburn offense were mostly ugly in a game Auburn had a chance to win late.

Auburn finished with 262 total yards, 175 of which were passing. Clemson held Auburn to 87 yards rushing on 41 attempts for a 2.1 yards carry average. The Auburn rushing numbers were skewed somewhat by four Clemson sacks. Taking out yardage lost on sacks, Auburn ran for 107 yards on 31 carries.

The majority of the Auburn rushing offense came from running back Kerryon Johnson who is currently with the Detroit Lions. Johnson had 23 carries for 94 yards and a touchdown to average 4.1 yards per carry. Miami is going to need a performance similar to Johnson from their running game against Clemson on Saturday.

The 2016 game between Auburn and Clemson was the season opener for both teams. Although Lashlee was the offensive coordinator for Auburn, he did not become their play-caller until three weeks later. Lashlee proved he was more than capable as a play-caller later that season against LSU DC Dave Aranda.

Aranda is now the head coach at Baylor after helping lead LSU to the National Championship. LSU defeated Clemson in the championship game as Venables and the Clemson defense was lit up. Venables was able to limit the Lashlee designed Auburn offense. Auburn was 15/30 for 175 yards passing with two interceptions.

Miami has much better QB play with D’Eriq King as the Hurricanes get ready to face Clemson on Saturday night than Auburn did playing Sean White and Jeremy Johnson in a 19-13 loss in 2016. Auburn’s only TD against Clemson in 2016 came late in the game on a direct snap to Kerry Johnson.

Miami has not utilized direct snaps or the Wildcat offense often this season. With King, Miami has the ideal dual-threat QB to run RPOs and make the Wildcat unnecessary. Auburn finished three for 17 on third down, but three for five on fourth down. Lashlee has helped Miami improve significantly on decisive downs in 2020.

Auburn also threw two interceptions and lost a fumble. The Miami offense has to continue taking care of the ball and convert on third and fourth down to be competitive against Clemson and have a chance for victory. The Miami offense has lost only one fumble this season and ranks 15th nationally on third down.