In the Sunday teleconference, Dabo Swinney said that what the players and coaches are doing is just not good enough, and it all comes back to him.
Clemson dropped another game to NC State last weekend in Raleigh to fall to 4-4 overall and 2-4 inside of the ACC. To find the last time Clemson had 4 losses inside of the conference you would have to go back to 2010 where they finished the season 6-7 and 4-4 in the ACC.
Where does the problem lie? Is it QB? Offensive line? Receivers? Coach Swinney had this to say Sunday about the situation. “Nothing we are doing is good enough right now. We aren’t coaching good enough, especially on offense. We have been very inconsistent. We have to improve in all areas”
Offensive Line:
I think overall the blame comes down to two different spots. The offensive line, and coaching.
We were told in the summer and in fall camp that this offensive line was going to be a strength for this team and that we had 10 guys that the staff felt really good about, that could help the team win ball games. We are eight games into the season and we have found out that there aren’t 5 guys that are good enough to help this team win. Obviously losing Walker Parks has been a big loss for the Tigers. Mitchell Mayes has been an absolute disaster and Blake Miller has taken a big step back in his sophomore year. Left tackle Tristan Leigh has been decent in pass protection but not so much in run blocking and it has been the opposite for backup left tackle Collin Sadler.
Thomas Austin is the offensive line coach and coming in we knew he didn’t have very much coaching experience. He spent a few seasons at Georgia State, and was brought in for a year to learn under long-time Clemson OL coach, Robbie Caldwell. Is this all a coaching problem? Were the players just not developed? Or was it just a miss on recruiting? I think it is a mixture of all of those.
I don’t think Thomas Austin is the best man for the job at this point in his career. I think Clemson needs to go in the direction of a more tenured, and overall better and more proven offensive line coach. I also think that some of these guys just aren’t what the recruiting services said they would be.
Wide Receivers:
As far as the receivers go I think that they have been good enough this year. Nobody would confuse this group for being an excellent or elite group but I think they have been good enough. Losing Antonio Williams is certainly a big loss but the addition of Tyler Brown and Troy Stellato finally being healthy has really helped this room. Over the last two games we have finally started to see Adam Randall come on a little bit and that certainly helps too. There are still some bad drops and just silly mistakes with technique, body placement etc. but overall they have been good enough to help this team not be 4-4.
Add on that the recruiting wins for Tyler Grisham, with TJ Moore and Bryant Wesco and I think he has earned some more time leading this group.
Quarterback:
Last season the entire fan base, me included, called for Cade to be the guy after the Syracuse game. Some even earlier. Fast forward to now and we are wondering if he is going to be a bust.
I think that it really hurt him to not get more playing time last year to work out some of his early season major mistakes. In the same breath, he has now started or played the majority of snaps in 10 games and some of his mistakes have just been awful. That can’t continue to happen.
It is year one with Garrett Riley as the OC and QB coach, so I do think that Cade will improve under Riley, but the question right now is… How much? I think you just have to ride it out with Cade and let him continue to develop and grow, and hope that he is in a better spot next year.
There are still some games left in the season and more opportunities for growth, but this off-season will be one of the biggest in recent history for the football program.
