Clemson Football Entering Uncharted Territory in This Passing Statistic

The Clemson Tigers in 2026 are 4-2 and in the heart of the ACC for contending for a conference championship. However, there’s a number that will need to improve to make the team even better.

Clemson’s offensive identity this season has clearly been the ground game, running the ball 226 times compared to the 193 passing attempts from offensive coordinator Chad Morris so far this season. However, there’s a number that puts the Tigers with some teams that don’t even throw the ball at all that will need to improve.

The Tigers have only two passing touchdowns, which is dead last in the entire country. They’re even behind Army and Air Force, teams that run the triple option and barely throw the ball.

Clemson ranked dead last in total TD passes in all of CFB behind 3 teams that run a triple option offense pic.twitter.com/J1NWunHq9d
— Nick Bateman (@nickbateman33) October 18, 2026

Now, is it a season-ending statistic? Not necessarily. Clemson has a true freshman quarterback starting in Tait Reynolds, and he’s made the plays to put the program in situations where it can win. The Tigers’ defense has been the main story of the season, including a shutout over Charleston Southern this past weekend for the first time since 2021.

Clemson also has nine rushing touchdowns on the year, including the trio that it had against hte Buccanners last Saturday. However, it only has one passing touchdown between each of the Tigers’ starters entering the season: Reynolds and redshirt junior Christopher Vizzina.

Despite losing games to LSU and Miami before entering their open date on Oct. 10, Clemson now enters arguably its most competitive part of the schedule, seeing programs that will be coin flps until the end of conference play. Head coach Dabo Swinney will see a revamped Virginia Tech this weekend, Florida State to finish out October, then matchups with Georgia Tech and Duke are notable ones that his team could slip up in.

However, if Swinney can get his group to get in the end zone through the air, it will balance out the type of scheme that Morris has wanted to play since he got here in January.

We knew that there would be growing pains with Reynolds at quarterback, and the metric above shows what that has brought to Clemson’s offense, which threw 22 touchdowns last season with senior Cade Klubnik at the helm. However, the Tigers have won every game that they’ve been favorited in, and if the freshman can get the ball to his top playmakers, it could add a new dimension to how good this Clemson team could be in 2026.

Kickoff between the Tigers and Hokies is set for 7 p.m. from Memorial Stadium, and the game will be broadcast on ESPN.

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