Clemson Offensive Line Has Done OK But Needs to Get Better
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney admitted earlier this year that an area of concern for the 2020 Tiger football team was his second-team offensive line, "Just our second offensive line," Swinney said.
"We are young there. Building the quality, dependable depth in that second group. That first offensive line has a chance to be great. Same thing at quarterback, running back, tight end, and wideout. And at defensive line, we have a really good group there and good depth. Our 'backers, I don't think we've ever had a better group. Our back seven, we have guys banged up -- up a day and down a day, so getting everyone all back healthy is huge -- but the one area on our team is -- we are just different from last year from an offensive line standpoint."
Through the first eight games of the 2020 season, Swinney appears to have been spot-on with his concern.
The Tigers rank 77th in sacks allowed per game, after ranking 17th a year ago. The Tigers also 90th in tackles-for-loss allowed, after ranking 57th a year ago.
While the struggles were to be expected, especially after replacing four starters from the 2019 team, the Tigers are not willing to say that it is all bad. In fact, according to offensive coordinator Tony Elliott, the Tigers were able to hold their own in their 47-40 loss to Notre Dame.
"I think you look until the last couple of plays there, the quarterback had time and was able to sit in the pocket and deliver the ball downfield," Elliott said. "We were close to breaking a couple of plays in the run game. Travis (Etienne) was an arm tackle away from breaking through. That group right there, they have a ton of pride and work their tails off. They're getting challenged, especially in the run game. They'll get challenged on the field by the opponent, they'll get challenged in practice, and they'll get challenged schematically."
The key for the Tigers during the off-week is to reevaluate, self-scout and figure out ways for the coaches to put an inexperienced offensive line in better positions to succeed.
"We are just going to go to work. And man, I love that group of guys," Elliott said. "Those guys are some of the most committed guys on the team. And we have to do a good job as coaches to put them in better situations where we can take advantage of teams' aggressiveness in the run so that we can generate some more productivity there."
