Clemson receiver group navigates injury attrition, seeking sweet spot for impact

Beaux Collins looks to step up in Antonio Williams' absence again coming up.

by Ariana Pensy - Correspondent - Thu Oct 26 13:30:14 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON - There were a lot of expectations for this offense heading into the season. With the addition of Garrett Riley at offensive coordinator and what he brings with his air raid offense, the wide receiver group became an even more important position. But injuries keep plaguing the Tigers.

After losing Cole Turner for the season and having Antonio Williams miss games, Williams is expected to miss more time with an apparent toe injury. That means that all of the available receivers are going to have to step up once again to fill this hole, particularly junior receiver Beaux Collins.

Collins is second on the Tigers in receiving with 368 yards; he is tied for second in touchdowns with two this season. The wide receiver group is among the many positions that are not living up to the hype of the preseason. According to Collins, the key is to figure out why what they are doing in practice is not occurring on the field.

“We’re all just trying to figure out the disconnect from practice to game days. That’s the main thing right now for us. We still have a lot of confidence,” Collins said. “We still go out there and compete in practice and things like that. But, it’s just figuring out that sweet spot to display what we can do.”

Adam Randall is another player who needs to step up on this team. Currently, he only has 112 receiving yards and has yet to have his first career touchdown. Randall suffered a torn ACL in April of 2022, which severely limited the amount of playing time he had in the 2022 season. This is his first season coming off of the injury, and Collins has tried his best to encourage Randall and make sure he builds his confidence.

“Just encouraging him, making sure that he’s completely confident. That’s the main thing, making sure he’s secure with himself and going out there and making the big boy plays like we need him to make, and it’s just really kind of teaching him that edge that he needs,” Collins said. “He’s doing a good job of displaying that more and more consistently, and I just can’t wait to see where he goes from there.”

A 2-3 record in conference play and a 4-3 record overall is quite disappointing for a team that always has the goal of making the ACC Championship and the National Championship. Both of those goals are not attainable this season. Nonetheless, Collins says that the team is still motivated to perform and believes they can be a hot team for the rest of the season.

“There’s been 4-3 teams at Clemson. There’s been 4-3 at other schools that really went on game winning streaks, been the hottest teams at the end of the year, and things like that. The ability to go play another down, I feel like, is what drives this team,” Collins said. “We’re all internally motivated. We have a lot of dawgs on our team that just love to play football. So, I feel like those are key factors in having another National Championship team here.”

The upcoming game against NC State this Saturday (2 p.m./The CW) will be the true test of how internally motivated this team truly is as they try to achieve their 13th straight season with at least ten wins, as well as qualify for as good of a bowl game as they can.