Explosiveness still a fairy tale for the Clemson offense

Garrett Riley has some work to do early in his second season with the Tigers.

David Hood · Senior Writer · Tuesday, September 03 2024

Once upon a time, explosive plays littered the Clemson football games. Once upon a time. Those days are no longer.

There was hope heading into Saturday’s season opener against Georgia. There was optimism. There was a feeling permeating the Clemson program that perhaps the offense had finally turned a corner. Heck, I bought into it. Once upon a time were the four words used to start fairytales, and the hope for explosive plays was one that didn’t have a happy ending.

Clemson had one big play – let’s use the metric of 20-plus yards – on Saturday. That was a 36-yarder to Antonio Williams. That’s it. That was the only play that covered 20 or more yards. Georgia had eight plays of 20-plus yards, and six of those came in the passing game. Georgia had 85 of those plays last season, Clemson just 46.

I remember a conversation with former offensive coordinator Chad Morris, who told us he wanted to take at least two and hopefully three deep shots per quarter. When I asked him why, he said that long drives are great, but when you dink and dunk down the field and are forced to 8-play, 10-play, 12-play drives together, that gives you more of an opportunity to screw it up. Meaning a turnover, a big penalty, a big sack.

Since the departure of Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne, Clemson has been a dink and dunk offense, and mistakes abound. Long drives have ended with fumbles on the goal line and other critical turnovers. Pushing the ball down the field is essential, and Clemson isn’t either willing or able.

Quarterback Cade Klubnik attempted 29 passes Saturday. There were just five attempted passes of 20-plus yards – one of those to Williams – and one was intercepted. On one of the deep balls, wide receiver Cole Turner stopped running his route.

There were just five passes of 10-plus yards, and Klubnik was 3-for-5 for 47 yards. One offensive coach – not at Clemson – texted me late Saturday after his team’s game was over, wondering about the deep middle of the field. There were no post routes or digs that he saw, and indeed, Clemson attempted zero passes past 10 yards in the middle of the field (all were to the sidelines).

According to Pro Football Focus, Clemson attempted six passes at the line of scrimmage or behind it. Now, Georgia attempted just nine passes (completed six) of 10-plus yards and was just 0-for-3 deep down the field. The Bulldogs found success in the quick game and Carson Beck was 17-of-21 on passes up to 10 yards. The difference, of course, is Clemson’s poor tackling and pursuit angles allowed for bigger pops, and the Georgia coaches were also able to scheme their guys into open spaces.

Georgia defenders said Clemson did what they have seen on film – nothing surprised them. Predictable is death.

If you define explosive plays, as say, 50 yards or more – Clemson had just two last season. Klubnik hit one for exactly 50 yards to Jake Briningstool against Miami, and Klubnik hit Beaux Collins for 69 yards against Charleston Southern. Against Power 5 folks, that's one play for exactly 50 yards. There were six of 40-plus yards.

There were five such plays in 2022, with two of those Will Shipley runs (50 and 53). The longest play was Klubnik’s 68-yarder to Cole Turner in the ACC Championship. In the ACC, North Carolina and Drake Maye had 14 plays of 50 or more yards last season, and in 2022, Garrett Riley’s TCU offense had 22 plays of 50 or more yards. In 2021, there were five plays of 50-plus, with the two longest via runs by Phil Mafah (63) and Kobe Pace (59).

In 2020, Clemson had nine such plays, with passes from Lawrence to Rodgers (83) and Cornell Powell (70) sandwiching Etienne’s 70-yard run. That was the last time Clemson had a play that covered 70 or more yards. When Lawrence had many of his weapons in 2019, Clemson had 16 plays that covered 50-plus. Three of those covered 80 or more.

In 2018? A whopping 23 plays of 50-plus, including five that reached 70 or more.

What does it all mean? The home run has disappeared from the playbook. Teams that hit singles can still score runs, but it’s harder to beat the teams that can consistently score three on one swing.

Is it scheme? Not trusting the quarterback? Lack of playmakers? It’s all of that. Clemson hasn’t had a game-breaking receiver (or, and this is an important piece to it, developed one) in a while. The quarterback play has been subpar (as has been the play of the offensive line), and the lack of true speed at running back has been glaring.

Can it be fixed this season? I don’t know, but something tells me that if the offense is going to be explosive, the Tigers are going to have to play the youngsters who have that explosive speed and target them. It can’t all be at the line of scrimmage or inside of ten yards (and that includes giving guys like Jay Haynes or David Eziomume touches at running back). Take the shots and live with the consequences.

Trevor Lawrence wasn’t prone to interceptions – his high was eight – but Deshaun Watson threw 17 in 2016, the year Clemson won a title. He threw 13 in 2015 when Clemson played for the title. Now, we all know that if Clemson quarterbacks throw 13 or 17 interceptions, it’s going to be a long season. The Tigers maybe don’t have the playmakers to overcome that. But chances have to be taken at some point because what they have done isn’t working.