Clemson Football: What happened to Beaux Time?

One of the differences that many people point to between the Clemson football championship teams of the past and the 2022 team is at wide receiver.

There’s no Mike Williams or Tee Higgins and the group has been inconsistent as a whole, with the exception of true freshman Antonio Williams.

No one that’s going to have 98 catches like Williams or make the circus grabs like Higgins on a consistent basis.

Over the first six games of the season Beaux Collins caught 18 passes for 290 yards and 5 touchdowns, leading the receivers in yards and touchdowns to that point of the season.

Since then? Zip.

In the last two games, against Florida State and Syracuse, Collins has been on the field for 111 snaps, 43 of which were pass plays and he’s been targeted exactly twice, once in each game.

Collins did have drops against North Carolina State and Boston College, but to counter that he was listed as the starter in both the Florida State game (39 snaps) and the Syracuse game (72 snaps).

In the first six games Collins was targeted on 30 of 291 snaps (10.3%) and in the last two Collins has been targeted 2 times in 111 snaps (1.8%).  He did draw a key pass interference penalty on a 3rd and 11 from midfield on the drive that put Clemson up 27-21.

There’s been a notable drop in the pass attempts over those two games for sure, but Williams and Joseph Ngata are still getting multiple targets (Ngata had 7 and Williams 8 over those two games) per game.

Fewer passes mean fewer targets for Clemson football wide receivers and none has been affected more than Beaux Collins

I thought perhaps Collins was injured at some point in the Florida State game, but I was told that was not the case and given his snap count and the fact that he was targeted deep, late in the Syracuse game, Collins appears healthy.

When you only throw 23 (FSU) and 25 (Syracuse) passes someone’s gonna get fewer targets.

It’s just curious that it ends up being the receiver with the most yards and touchdowns through the first half of the season.