Clemson football: With or without Tony Elliott, offense must change

With or without Tony Elliott, the Clemson football offense must change

As the Clemson football team approaches the 2021 season, things must change within the offensive unit as we move forward.

Under the leadership of Tony Elliott, as well as playmakers like Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne, Clemson finished the 2020 season ranked No. 10 in total offense and No. 4 overall in touchdowns (with 64).

So, with those impressive statistics, many Clemson football fans might look and say: Why does anything need to change?

After all, the Tigers have had a top-10 offense every year under Elliott and they averaged 43 points per game, good enough for No. 4 in the nation.

While the ‘paper production’ tells one story, the actual production tells a different story for Clemson football

It’s easy to look at low-hanging stats and point to them to make a point. But let’s take what they did at Alabama and compare it.

Alabama finished this No. 1 in total offense. The Crimson Tide faced three defenses that rank inside the top-25 in total defense in Texas A&M, Georgia and Notre Dame. They averaged 41.3 points per game in those games. Alabama played a total of nine teams with defenses inside the top-100 and they averaged 44.1 points per game in those matchups.

Clemson, on the other hand, played just one team that ranked inside the top-25 in total defense (Notre Dame at No. 25) and the Tigers played them twice, averaging 37 points per game in those two matchups.

What’s more interesting, though, is that the Tigers played just five defenses inside the top-100 during the season. In all those games combined, Clemson averaged 36.4 points per game- more than a touchdown average worse than the Crimson Tide.

We can point to difficult situations- ie Trevor Lawrence being out for two games, Tony Elliott missing the Sugar Bowl- and point to the defensive flaws, but that still doesn’t change the facts.

We’re not saying that Clemson lost to Notre Dame or Ohio State because of the offense. The Tigers scored more than enough against the Irish and the defense was absolutely blistered against Ohio State, but to say that there was nothing wrong with the offense is a little naïve.

It goes past the offensive line troubles, as well. Though, they are a major part of it.

Don’t you remember when it seemed like Clemson’s offensive system was cutting-edge? People were taking notice of how the Tigers attacked with RPOs and what they were doing with their reads on the sideline and at the lines of scrimmage.

Now, analysts point to ‘cutting-edge’ offensive schemes in places like Alabama, Florida, LSU (for that one year), Ohio State and even Oklahoma.

The Tigers have to adjust.

We’re not saying to copy Alabama or to change a whole offensive system. What we’re simply saying is that there are far too many points being left on the field by this offense. Any time we’ve seen this unit play against a capable defense over the past couple of years, they’ve left much to be desired (seeing LSU and Ohio State losses for examples).

It’s time to change it up. It’s time to introduce some new wrinkles and adjust how things are done. The offense needs to attack more and start to rely on its massive amount of talented playmakers to make a difference.

With or without Tony Elliott, it’s time for the offense to come back to life with a new reemergence instead of continuing to settle for being ‘pretty good.’