Clemson football: Secondary still has a lot of questions that need answers

A lot of good came from Clemson football Saturday night against Wake Forest.

It was great to have Clemson football on TV Saturday night. College football brings a sense of normalcy to many of us during a year where nothing has been normal. While the Tiger accomplished a lot of good Saturday night, there was one area that has to improve quickly – the secondary.

Wake Forest was two blatantly missed defensive pass interference calls and two dropped wide-open touchdown passes away from making this a ballgame. Yes, the initial reaction is that they were missing four key pieces in the secondary but with everything going on with COVID-19, that cannot be an excuse because it is something that could affect them every week moving forward.

Head coach Dabo Swinney has repeatedly talked about how talented the secondary is but Saturday night they were very sloppy in coverage and with some of the offenses and quarterbacks that the Tigers will face in 2020, this is something that must be cleaned up immediately.

Clemson football coaching staff is the best at in-season development and growth.

The great news for Clemson football is that they have Mike Reed and Brent Venables who are two of the best defensive coaches in the country and have already looked at the tape, graded the tape, and formulated a plan to correct the things that these young guys aren’t doing.

There is no doubt that Dabo Swinney is correct about the talent level – we saw that plenty on Saturday night as well along with athleticism that Clemson has never seen from a group standpoint. Sure, over the years Clemson football has had plenty of individual pieces when it comes to talented secondary players but from top to bottom this secondary group is elite and a few tweaks will help them grow and get better moving forward.

The good news for Clemson is that they have two weeks before their next big test comes to Death Valley. Of course, I am talking about Miami, who looked like they finally joined the 21st century offensively with quarterback D’Erik King at the helm.

The Citadel this weekend will provide an excellent opportunity for the Tigers to fix a few things on the back end as well as provide an opportunity to gain some confidence as they move forward in ACC play.