Clemson football: ACC coaches talk anonymously about Tigers

The Clemson football program has absolutely dominated the ACC over the course of the last half-decade and there’s nothing standing in the way of the Tigers continuing that trend here in 2021.

Clemson is currently riding a streak of six-straight ACC Championships and the Tigers are considered the heavy favorite to make it back to Charlotte and compete for another CFB Playoff berth this season.

Athlon Sports released its annual edition of ‘Coaches Talk Anonymously’ and several coaches had high praise for Dabo Swinney and the Clemson football program.

One coach talked about the Tigers being the standard for not just the ACC, but for the rest of the nation.

"“They’re losing the top pick in the draft and they’re still a national title favorite,” one coach said."

And another mentioned how the Tigers are so much further ahead of everyone else that it skews the view of others who are improving.

"“They’re still the standard, still miles ahead of the Florida schools, still the best in our league top to bottom. They’re at a level that really skews the curve for our league, because there are teams improving, like UNC, but you can’t tell over the course of a year when you compare them to these guys,” another coach said."

Two others talked about the defense and how they expect the unit will be much-improved in 2021 after a bit of down year in 2020.

"“They’ll be better on defense, because they’re going to be older. ‘20 was the year for them to learn and break in a lot of those guys. The defensive line was really good for how young they were. Those younger edge guys are coming back better, same with the secondary.”"

Brent Venables received praise, as well.

"“[Defensive coordinator] Brent [Venables] does an exceptional job rebuilding his scheme around personnel. It’s never really the same thing year to year, I wouldn’t expect that to change this year.”"

A couple of coaches gave their scouting reports with glimpses into what they may think might be holes in the Tigers’ offense.

One talked about the skill position personnel.

"“I don’t feel like they’re quite as good at receiver as in years past, and whoever gets the majority of snaps at RB will be really interesting, I think they’re really competitive there.”"

And the other discussed D.J. Uiagalelei.

"“The next man up at QB [D.J. Uiagalelei] is really, really good. I’m not sure if he’s the same sort of running threat that Trevor [Lawrence] was, which is something to watch. I think it’s going to be a different offense, because whenever they got in trouble or got outschemed they’d just run Trevor. This kid is a giant, a very different athlete.”"

The Clemson football program is in a class of its own in the ACC

The interesting point that we find in these quotes is the respect that so many coaches are paying to Clemson.

Typically we always hear at least one coach throw a little shot the Tigers’ way, but that’s not really the case here.

Coaches talked about the improvement of the defense and how the Tigers are in a class of their own. The only real ‘slights’ you can find in any of these quotes are coaches who were talking about the changes on the offensive side of the ball.

One coach believes that D.J. Uiagalelei isn’t as good of a runner as Trevor Lawrence– and we pretty much agree– and that will lead to a different style of an offense.

Another coach said he believes the wide receivers aren’t quite as good as in year’s past and, honestly, we’d have to completely disagree with that comment. Anyone who has watched the depth being developed at that position can see they’re going to be leaps and bounds better than what we saw on the field in 2020.

At the end of the day, it’s always fun to see what coaches have to say about Clemson football and it should be very telling that not one had a real negative slight to offer when talking about the Tigers.