Why Tait Reynolds’ Improvement Gives Clemson’s Offense Another Dimension

Clemson quarterback Tait Reynolds wasn’t perfect on Saturday. When he was asked about his performance postgame, he saw it with a critical eye.

“There's still a lot of mistakes [we made],” he said. “We can just keep getting better and better. I made a lot of mistakes today, but that’s a great thing. It’s exciting because then you learn from them, and just think about how much better we can be.”

The first half was an offensive slog for the Tigers, who managed only a pair of Nolan Hauser field goals to trail 17-6 to a red-hot Tar Heel team. UNC bottled up Clemson’s run game, forcing the offense into obvious passing situations and forcing a trio of three-and-outs.

Despite trailing by double-digits at the half, Clemson’s offense didn’t panic. They leaned on the run game and made Reynolds’ life easy. The true freshman paid off their confidence in him, leading the Tigers to four scoring drives in the team’s final five possessions (excluding kneel-downs).

“He needed to play games,” head coach Dabo Swinney said about Reynolds postgame. “Obviously, we threw him into a really tough situation in our opener. He got his first week of getting all of the reps [this week]. I thought he had a good week. He just has gotten better and better and better. He’s obviously a very gifted kid. He’s got an elite arm. He can throw from the pocket, he can throw on the move, he can run. He’s going to get even better as a runner once he really learns how to run with patience.”

All of those traits showed up in the second half of Clemson’s 28-20 victory over North Carolina on Saturday, particularly Reynolds’ mobility. He was held to just 5 yards on 6 first-half carries, before gaining 21 yards on 5 carries after halftime. On several other plays, his mobility helped the offense allow plays to develop and receivers gain separation on their coverage.

When asked about Reynolds’ emergence as the team’s starting signal-caller, Swinney made it clear that he has confidence in him.

“If you can’t see Tait Reynolds and be excited, I don’t know what you’re looking at,” he said. “It’s a bright future for this kid.”

A bright future, indeed. Reynolds made decisive reads in the latter parts of Saturday’s contest, and kept the ball out of harm’s way almost all day. He finished 20-for-29 as a passer for 215 yards, throwing one touchdown and one interception, which equated to a 135.7 quarterback rating. The interception came on a badly underthrown ball where Bryant Wesco Jr. was open for a potential touchdown, but that was a blip on the radar. North Carolina didn’t have any other chances at turning over the true freshman.

Heading into Friday night’s contest against a formidable Cal team, there’s no doubt that Reynolds will continue to start for Clemson. Time will tell whether he develops into the player many in the program believe he can be. One thing is for certain: he showed enough on Saturday to provide confidence that he’ll continue improving in the weeks to come.

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