Matt Luke Details Early Issues With Clemson's Offensive Line

Clemson football has had its growing pains to begin the 2026 season, but one unit stands out most compared to the others: offensive line.

In the Tigers’ loss to Miami this past weekend, the Hurricanes' defensive line swarmed quarterback Tait Reynolds, forcing him to make plays with his legs if he wasn’t sacked—one of the six times it occurred on Saturday night. On Tuesday afternoon, offensive line coach Matt Luke cleared the air.

The cohesion is one of the issues, and the group isn’t playing with the type of togetherness that top-10 teams succeed with. The Tigers do not.

“When you play against good teams, the margin for error is very, very small,” Luke said, “and so I think that’s where we got to continue to grow, continue to get better, and we will.”

Going into the open date, which is the only one of the season, Luke will look for that cohesion to return with an extra week to put it all together. To do so, he said “the best five athletes on the field” will be there, and he will be making a change to what the traditional line has looked like in the first five weeks.

Instead of the combination of Ronan O’Connell and Grant Wise, right guard will be given to true sophomore Easton Ware. Ware has been the backup at right tackle to fifth-year senior Collin Sadler. Now, he will be picking up his second start of his young career when the season resumes on Oct. 17.

“This open date is coming at a good time for us because we’re looking for cohesion, and guys playing together,” Luke said, “but that’s my job is to get those guys playing in a way that we all want them to play.”

Looking back, there’s now discourse regarding the transfer portal. Of course, Clemson only picked up one transfer during the period: SMU running back Chris Johnson Jr. Besides that, the other transfers took their talents to the defensive side of the ball.

In retrospect, Luke cleared the air regarding a transfer piece on the line.

“I think we obviously looked at some guys and didn’t work out, but we got some good young talent, and that’s why he hired me is to get these guys ready to play and try to put a product on the field that everybody’s proud of,” he said.

With the situation he’s in, Luke is investing the time in developing a young offensive line, one which will now have two starting underclassmen in Ware and left tackle Brayden Jacobs. Others behind in the depth chart will have to grow up in 2027 for names like Sadler and potentially center Harris Sewell.

The offensive line coach said he wasn’t “banking on it”, either.

“I feel comfortable because we do have a lot of young talent on this team,” he said. ‘So, [it] wasn’t like you’re banking on it. If you don’t get them, we’re going to play these young guys. You may take some lumps, but these guys will continue to grow and get better.”

There’s an extra week of preparation and rest before the Tigers host Charleston Southern at Memorial Stadium. In that span, Luke will hope to get the group closer to being successful than its first five weeks.

“Obviously, there’s a vision and expectation of the way that we all want to look, and that vision didn’t come to life on the tape, and that’s my job to get them right.”

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