Clemson football: Marcus Tate is the key to the offensive line in 2021

The 2021 Clemson football season is less than three weeks away from kickoff and there are still plenty of questions to be answered.

One of the questions that Clemson football fans continue to ask is how the offensive line is shaping out.

The Tigers had a rather lackluster performance from the group as a whole in 2020 and it just never seemed like they could find a dominant streak. The interior of the offensive line was beaten soundly quite a bit and that is still a concern coming into this season.

As a matter of fact, it’s the biggest concern when looking at the potential of this Clemson offense.

The key to the Clemson football offensive line is freshman OG Marcus Tate

We’ve liked Marcus Tate since before he committed to Clemson, but I don’t think anyone could’ve projected that he would come in right away and automatically be one of the top offensive linemen on the roster.

He has a great blend of size and footwork and he does an excellent job of maintaining physicality at the position.

Over the first portion of fall camp, the Clemson football coaching staff has continued to flip around the offensive line rotation looking to get the “best five” guys on the field.

If that’s the case, Tate has to be one of those five.

If Tate steps into the starting lineup, here’s likely what your group looks like with weights listed:

• LT: Jordan McFadden (310)
• LG: Marcus Tate (327)
• C: Matt Bockhorst (317)
• RG: Will Putnam (303)
• RT: Walker Parks (306)

If Tate is left out of the starting lineup, though, you’re talking about situation where Bockhorst moves back over to guard and you have either Mason Trotter (285) or Hunter Rayburn (320) stepping into that center role.

No disrespect to Trotter or Rayburn, but if you’re talking about pure talent, then there’s no way that either of those guys are listed ahead of Tate. That being said, they still could win out the competition and you know what that would tell us? It would tell us that the coaching staff doesn’t quite think Tate is ready.

The coaching staff wants to start Tate, but they’re not going to do it until he earns their full trust.

If he’s not the starter when the Tigers open up the season, the truth is that Rayburn or Trotter might just be a placeholder until he does earn their trust. Because as soon as they believe fully in him– and honestly from what we’ve heard, they’re already pretty close– he’s going to be among those ‘best five.’

If you’re a Clemson football fan and you want to see the offensive line reach its full potential in 2021, it all starts with Marcus Tate.

There are still discussions to be had with Will Putnam, Rayburn, Bockhorst and others on what they should do with the rest of the interior line and there are still conversations as to what the second-string group could look like and the depth that the Tigers will have there, but make no mistake about it:

You want to hear Marcus Tate’s name being called out more and more as preseason camp progresses.