Richardson says the Tigers are a 'very average' offense right now

Kyle Richardson says the offense has been very average but has potential for greatness.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Wed Nov 09 08:00:05 GMT-04:00 2022

CLEMSON – Clemson’s offense is average across the board, at every position. But passing game coordinator and tight ends coach Kyle Richardson says the offense has players with greatness inside them, they just have to find it.

The Clemson passing offense ranks just 73rd nationally at 231.1 yards per game and the rushing offense is a little better, sitting at 49th nationally at just over 173 yards per game. However, the offense has struggled to put points on the board the last few games due to inconsistency, turnovers, and questionable play-calling at times.

Average.

“I will say this, we're very average in all positions right now, but we have greatness in all the positions too,” Richardson said earlier this week. “And we are just one play away. Because we've already seen it. It's not like I'm sitting here saying, ‘Hey, we're one play away. Remember three years ago when we did it? Let's go.’ I mean, did y'all come to Wake Forest? Everybody came to the Wake Forest game? Okay. I mean we were pretty good offensively that night. Wasn't too long ago.

“So, I mean we have these pockets of greatness. We just have to put it back together. And again, we have to keep things into perspective too. And again, it's been a bad two nights, we've had two bad nights and it just happens to be the last two games and we'll get it turned.”

When he was asked about the identity of the offense to this point, Richardson stayed with the “one play away” mantra that brought back memories of the Tommy Bowden years.

“Right now, I think the identity for us right now is that we're one play away from being great. We're one play away from being just average,” he said. “One play away from being just average. And that's where we are right now. There's been a couple balls that they're thrown un-catchable. If they're thrown catchable, it's a different ballgame. There are a couple balls that's been thrown very catchable and they're not caught. It's a different ballgame. And that comes from the receiver room and the tight end room. And then there's a couple plays where we've handed it off to (Will) Shipley or (Phil) Mafah and we are one block away and it looks like it's there and we get a shoestring tackle based off of one block.

“The same thing with Saturday. I mean, first play we go eight, nine yards, we spit out a screen, we go eight, nine yards and what are we doing? Get it back for holding and then we turn around and get a holding and call two plays later. And that's just kind of where we've been the last two weeks.”

Richardson said there is plenty of blame to pass around.

“We can't throw the catchable balls that we need to throw. We can't catch the catchable balls that are being thrown,” he said. “We're getting penalties when we get positive plays. We lived in third and long this week. We're fifth in the country in red zone offense, which was a struggle last year. And we've been consistent in that all year in red zone offense. We're fifth in the country and I think we're 18th in the country in third down efficiency. We lived in third and long all night Saturday night. And that's something that we haven't done this year.”