Clemson Offense is Not Worried about Layoff

CLEMSON — The Clemson offense finished the season red-hot. In fact, one would be hard pressed to find a better offensive team over the last month of the season.

In November, the Tigers averaged 51 points per game (third in the nation for the month), 261.5 yards rushing (13th in the nation), 312 yards passing (18th nationally) and 573.5 yards per game (second in the nation).

But after a four-week layoff from the ACC Championship game to the No. 3 Tigers' matchup with the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes Dec. 28 in the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl (8 p.m., ESPN), the question surrounding the offensive unit is: Will it continue the hot play or will the layoff be a problem?

For the players, even asking that question brings laughs.

"Nah, we aren't going to have a let down," wide receiver Amari Rodgers said. "We have been rolling all season long, we had one bad game, but other than that we have been out there killing it all season and that isn't going to change because we have a couple of weeks off."

The words of Rodgers were echoed across the board when the starting 22 players for the Tigers were made available to the media.

“Absolutely not. There is no way this team is having a let down," offensive lineman John Simpson said. "We are only getting better. I mean, I we have had two weeks to prepare, get rested and get ready. You are going to see the best version of us in Phoenix."

If the Tigers are going to parlay their confidence into performance on the field Dec. 28, they will have to execute at a level equal to that of the last month of the season, and not the first month.

Through the month of September, the Tigers ranked 24th in the nation in scoring (averaging 38 points per game), 26th in rushing offense (averaging 222.6 yards per game), 46th in pass offense (263.4 yards per game) and 21st in total offense (averaging 486 yards per game).

However, according to co-offensive Tony Elliott, those numbers do not reflect the level at which the Tiger offense is playing now.

“You know, I think that in the first month of the season we were all trying to learn and figure things out,” Elliott said. “I think that after the first month of the season, we kind of got our feet under us and we really started to hit our stride as the season went on.

“I think that our guys have a sense of how good they are and the amount of work that it takes to not just be good, but play good. Once we, kind of, figured that out, we began to move the ball and score points like we knew we could.”

That sentiment has the Tigers not worrying about whether they will revert to the offense which struggled through the first four games.

“Our focus is on playing our best four quarters of the season in 10 days," Rodgers said. "We aren't worried about the past slow starts. We believe that we are the best offense in the nation and we want to go show everyone who doubted us early in the season they were wrong."

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