Clemson needs special receivers to get back on top of college football
The Clemson Tigers were crowned ACC Champions last season following a one-year hiatus from the conference title game, but they’ll now look to get back into the College Football Playoff and national championship conversation.
And On3’s Andy Staples believes there’s a chance they can do so, especially considering their hires made this offseason, as he revealed on the ‘Pardon My Take’ podcast why the Tigers specifically on offense can show some new life.
“I am intrigued because he’s brought in Garrett Riley as offensive coordinator,” Staples said. “So Garrett Riley was the OC for TCU, he’s the younger brother of Lincoln Riley the USC coach. Every time Dabo’s brought new ideas into Clemson, Clemson has gotten better.”
Riley helped orchestrate a TCU offense that ranked ninth in the nation in points per game last season, averaging 38.8 points per contest all the way to the national championship game. And he could be the answer in helping out a Tigers offense, who’ve dropped out of the top three in ACC scoring offenses in the last two seasons after leading the conference in three consecutive seasons.
“I was a little worried last year when both coordinators left, Clemson promoted from within, and it’s like okay are you sure what you’re doing is going to keep you on pace to compete for national titles?” Staples asked. “And they looked stale offensively last year, they looked fine defensively, but they looked stale offensively. So now they’re bringing in new ideas.”
A new offensive coordinator along with a young talented quarterback like Cade Klubnik under center makes the offensive future seem bright at Clemson. But Staples believes that in order to really compete nationally, the Tigers will have to find some newfound, standout production at the wide receiver position.
“But I do wonder from a talent standpoint on offense, I don’t worry about their defense I think they’re gonna be fine there, do they have the playmakers beyond Will Shipley and are they gonna have the receiving corps? Because remember, think about who they used to have at receiver when they had pre-injury Justyn Ross, and Tee Higgins, and Mike Williams, and Sammy Watkins,” Staples said.
“Do they have any special receivers like that? Because they’re going to need that to get back to where they were.”
The Tigers haven’t had a 1,000-yard wideout in the last two seasons after three consecutive years of having one, and will look to players like Beaux Collins, Antonio Williams, Cole Turner, and Adam Randall to step up big this season.
Swinney called his current wide receiver room ‘the fastest we’ve had’, and hopefully for Tiger fans, they can live up to the hype in a new high-powered offensive scheme.