Clemson Football: Tigers look to increase tempo in 2018
Clemson football will look to improve in several key areas on offense in 2018, including managing a much faster tempo to put pressure on defenses.
The 2018 Clemson football team is one of the favorites to win the national title.
The Tigers return everyone on what was one of the nation’s best defensive lines last season. They also have plenty of talent at the linebacker and secondary positions.
On offense, Clemson should boast a more mature group of skill position players with a more versatile offensive line.
Clemson football co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott said the Tigers will look to improve in several key areas this season.
Jeff Scott outlined three key areas, according to The State’s Matt Connolly, that he’d like to see the offense improve in:
- Tempo
- Screen Game
- Downfield Passing Game
Analysis:
Jeff Scott recognizes the problems that Clemson faced on offense last season.
Because of the wide receivers not getting open or because of Kelly Bryant missing them, the Tigers missed out on some opportunities to get the passing game going in certain match-ups last season.
It was a mixture of things, but I think it will be a focus of the coaches this year to fix some of those problems and really get the passing game going.
When the downfield game is working, it sets up the run and keeps the defense honest.
The first one, however, is the biggest improvement that I saw that needed to be made. The Tigers seemed to go better when they went faster.
Unfortunately, they weren’t able to go tempo a lot of times last year. That really hurt the offense. There were times last year where they weren’t snapping the ball until there were five seconds left on the play clock.
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The Clemson football offense needs to go faster. They need to up the tempo and wear down defenses. That’s how you get back to being a true “Smashmouth Spread.”