Four things Clemson football is missing early on in the 2020 season
The Clemson football team has opened up the 2020 season firing on all cylinders and looking like a team determined to bring home a National Championship.
The Tigers, who are 2-0, have beaten their season-opening opponents in The Citadel and Wake Forest by a combined score of 86-13, and honestly, the games could’ve been much worse.
There’s no doubt that this Clemson football team has the talent to win a championship, but there are still some areas in which the Tigers can improve moving forward.
4. Offensive line continuity
One of the first areas has to do with the offensive line. When you look at the rest of the starting offense, you can’t really find any holes.
Trevor Lawrence is the best player in College Football. Travis Etienne is as explosive as ever. Amari Rodgers, Braden Galloway, Frank Ladson Jr., Joseph Ngata, Cornell Powell and others have all stepped up at wide receiver.
But the offensive line is still coming along. In both games to begin the season, the unit has had a little bit of trouble getting a solid push, especially in the run game. There have been short-yardage situations that they haven’t come through and it has more to do with building chemistry than anything else.
In addition, the depth of the offensive line- the players who can be trusted in the rotation- needs to be established.
3. Depth throughout the offensive unit
As good as the starting offense is, we’ve seen the backups struggle.
The backup offensive line hasn’t been able to have much of any type of win so far. D.J. Uiagalelei has had some bright spots, but it’s clear the freshman still has some developing to do.
The rotation at wide receiver and running back is still being established.
More so than anything else, the depth in the offense needs to be established and developed and that’s going to take some time.
2. That physically-imposing wide receiver
We’ve seen the Clemson football offense change this season- and I think it’s for the better.
The Tigers are using the middle of the field more and running quick routes to get the ball out to their play-maker. Trevor Lawrence is throwing with great accuracy and he’s finding the open man, and his receivers are doing a great job of creating space.
That being said, the one thing this offense is missing is that physically imposing wide receiver who can go up and get the 50/50 ball. There are receivers on this roster- Ladson, Ngata and E.J. Williams, in particular- who could become that player, but they haven’t proved they can do it consistently as of yet.
1. Consistent defensive backfield
We didn’t really see the secondary challenged against The Citadel- a triple-option team- but it’s clear that there are areas for this unit to improve.
They were beaten on several occasions on play-action passes against the Bulldogs with their eyes in the backfield, but that shouldn’t be a surprise or held against them too much.
That being said, this group still has to get better. Wake Forest found holes in the secondary and the Tigers are going to play some quarterbacks in the coming months who could pose as problems if the defensive backfield, particularly the cornerbacks, can’t stay with their men.
The Clemson football team will have a bye this week as they continue to develop and begin preparing for the Virginia Cavaliers next Saturday.