Clemson football: Players aren’t just happy with getting to CFP

Clemson football leaders are saying the right things during spring practice.

After the embarrassing way that Clemson football has ended the last two seasons, it is great to see the senior leadership talk with urgency – something that has been missing from the actual fan base.

There is a lot of “happy to be here” folks, which goes against everything that this current coaching staff has been preaching for the last decade. When head coach Dabo Swinney says “Best is the Standard” that doesn’t mean the best is the standard only against the ACC or South Carolina but rather in everything that they do.

This seems to have been forgotten by people who want to shame others into wanting this program to accomplish what it sets out to do and getting embarrassed in the biggest games of the season is not what they set out to do.

Senior left guard Matt Bockhorst put it bluntly yesterday – “There’s a difference between being in the Playoff and winning it all. And it’s a pretty big difference in my opinion.”

He is absolutely correct.

While there are apparently thousands that were just happy to see the Tigers in the College Football Playoffs, players themselves seem to understand that getting there isn’t the goal, winning the playoffs is.

The big question becomes what are they doing to get better and make sure that their 2021 season does not end in the same embarrassing fashion as 2019 and 2020? There are several steps that the offensive side of the ball has to take in order to prevent this from happening.

Understanding what went wrong is step number one. Replacing the eight guys that voluntarily left the Clemson football program afterward with highly talented guys and not walk-on players is step number two.

Evolving to meet the upper echelon teams offensively is step number three. Moving Justyn Ross to the slot is a step in the right direction here and utilizing the middle of the field and not simply outside the numbers is going to be paramount to the 2021 version of Clemson football and their success.

The final step is blocking upfront.

While Swinney loved to tell everyone just how great the offensive line has been over the last two years, those in the trenches themselves are now publicly disagreeing. The addition of a young Thomas Austin as an offensive analyst to help with the group upfront will hopefully enable this group to get better.

There are still a lot of questions that have to be asked and answered for 2021, but there is no doubt that if the players understand the true issues of what went wrong, the coaching staff does too and that is a great sign as they work toward kicking off the year in Charlotte against UGA.