Another position group that saw a transition in the offseason was Clemson’s offensive line.
The group saw a switch in December, when head coach Dabo Swinney let go of coach Thomas Austin and brought in offensive line coach Matt Luke, who went through stints at Ole Miss and Georgia before joining the Tigers.
Last week, he spoke to the media regarding the “transformational phase”, which he explained as a time where the offensive lineman are transforming their bodies in different ways ahead of the season.
“So far, everything has been really good,” he said. “They had a great first session of summer.”
Coach Matt Luke
There are a lot of moving parts with this group in football, which makes it one of the more complicated positions to coach. However, Luke is comfortable with playing around “seven to eight guys” on the line, mostly because of the injuries that the team suffered on the line throughout the season.
One of those players was Walker Parks, who only featured in two games following a season-ending lower body injury after Charleston Southern. With the graduate senior getting back into the trenches, Luke says that he has contributed all over the field while being hurt.
“Just having his experience and his toughness, but even when he wasn’t there, he was behind me coaching,” he said. “Having him back out there for fall camp will be good. We will actually see where we are seven or eight practices in.”
The other guard that missed a lot of time was Marcus Tate, who enters his senior season after a season-ending knee injury halfway through the season. Being back in practice as a full participant in the summer, the Clemson offensive line coach says that there is individual influence from Tate when he is on the line in practice.
“It was awesome to have him back,” he said, “just with his size there at guard and the fact that he’s played tackle before gives you some flexibility as well. His size in there at guard has been really good. . .you could really notice a difference with him in there.”
Because of the return of these two keystones on the line, it leaves many different players available to play throughout the season, as Luke reiterated many times that injuries occur, especially in this position.
Enter guys like Collin Sadler and Harris Sewell, who featured in relief heavily after the injuries to Parks and Tate. While Sadler remains as an option at tackle for Luke, Sewell has been seeing snaps at center following the departure of long-time center Will Putnam. While Ryan Linthicum has been the heir to Putnam’s spot by seniority, Sewell is not out of luck yet, with Luke saying that he will not know the official center until around the second scrimmage is complete.
“He’s hungry and has waited his turn, and he now knows that this is his opportunity,” Luke said about Linthicum. “I think knowing guys are pushing for playing time helps you keep that edge. It’s not something that’s just handed to you, it is something you have to earn.”
Luke had high praise for Sadler too, calling him the “best athlete” on the offensive line, with his versatility known fully by his coach.
“Besides center, he could play any single position,” he said about the redshirt sophomore.
In Sadler’s position at left tackle to begin the season, most likely, will be Tristan Leigh, who was all over the line for Austin’s group last season. While being a guard for most of the season, Luke likes what he sees for his player to be the blindside blocker for quarterback Cade Klubnik.
“I love his length and he’s very driven,” he said. “He wants to be good, he’s a competitor. I just want to see him get a little bit stronger in his lower body. I’ve been very impressed with him on the field but also off the field.”
With most of the line being experienced players to begin the season against Georgia, Luke still believes that there are many others who will see plenty of snaps on the line. For players like Dietrich Pennington and Ian Reed, Luke spoke of them as guys who may break the rotation of linemen throughout the year.
“Those guys, I think, will have a chance to compete for some playing time,” he said.
Another thing that Luke likes about his line is the competition that the Clemson defense brings. With players on the other side, such as TJ Parker, Peter Woods and DeMonte Capehart, their opponents provide benefits with playing against a defense with some of the best players in college football.
“It’s about the players on the field against a really good opponent,” Luke said. “The positive is the motivation to prepare all summer when you have an opponent like that, I think that is good.”
Coach Luke
With it being his first year at Clemson, the former Ole Miss head coach’s most important thing to add to all of his lineman was simple: confidence.
“I was using the spring to try to mold and create, and really create confidence,” he said. “My main mindset was creating a standard of effort and toughness and then creating that confidence to say, ‘Ok, we can do this, let’s go do this.’”
Fans will soon see how much confidence Luke has installed in his players in only a few weeks, with the Tigers facing off against the Bulldogs in Week 1 on August 31 being right around the corner.
