Clemson Football will look different on offense this coming season. They will have a new offensive coordinator in Garrett Riley and a new starting quarterback in Cade Klubnik. There will be a new left tackle to replace Jordan McFadden.
Some things will remain very familiar. Will Shipley and Phil Mafah will carry the rock. While Davis Allen has moved on to the NFL, Jake Briningstool logged plenty of snaps and big plays for the Tigers last season.
The wide receiver group will be somewhere in between. Only one big name has moved on: Joseph Ngata. There will be a few freshmen. Noble Johnson played in the spring, and Ronan Hanafin and Tyler Brown have arrived to participate in fall camp.
Otherwise, the players you saw last year will be the players on the field in the fall. One of the biggest questions will be who steps up to thrive in Riley’s system and gives Klubnik a go-to threat.
Antonio Williams looked fantastic as a freshman. Adam Randall was slowed by a significant injury last spring, and the hope is that he can emerge following a healthier offseason and fall camp. Cole Turner turned heads in limited action last in the 2022 season following a redshirt.
The faces will be the same, but the hope is that someone, or multiple players, turn into different beasts in Riley’s system.
The forgotten man in most discussions about wide receivers is Beaux Collins. Collins emerged as the Tigers’ best option late in the 2021 season when all the veterans were injured. There was an expectation that he would lead the receivers in 2022. That didn’t happen, and many people have jumped to conclusions, sometimes based on bad takes and knee-jerk reactions.
The most common belief often expressed amongst the fan base is that Collins isn’t tough enough to be a big-time college receiver. Some say it is because he is from California and the Tigers’ dalliance with recruiting from that state has been a disaster, based on Ngata and DJ Uiagalelei. The conclusion is that players from California are soft, and since Collins is from there, then he is soft too.
Others have concluded that Collins can’t be a factor moving forward because Uiagalelei has moved on. This hypothesis is based on the idea that Collins emerged because he had great chemistry with DJU and now that Klubnik is the starter, Collins won’t be a factor. The poor logic is that Collins couldn’t possibly develop chemistry with someone other than DJU.
The reality is that Collins didn’t perform well through much of 2022 because he was injured. The first injury happened in fall camp and limited his preparation time. To start the season, Collins played well. He made a clutch catch in overtime against Wake Forest that kept the Tigers’ hopes of winning alive. Collins led the team in receiving yards in three of the first six games.
Then the injury bug nailed him again. When he was able to play, he was limited. Fans were quick to criticize him for not blocking well in the latter half of the season. The reality is that he was trying to do it with essentially one arm. He shut it down after the South Carolina game.
Beaux Collins could make a huge comeback for Clemson Football in 2023
Collins had surgery to repair the shoulder and ended up missing spring practice, which took him further from the minds of the fans. These days, you will often see his name mentioned as a likely starter in 2023, but when the conversation moves to who the fans think will emerge alongside Williams as a threat, Collins’s name is rarely mentioned.
Sometimes the best thing for people trying to bounce back from adversity is to fly under the radar for a little while. I don’t think the staff has forgotten how good Collins can be when he is healthy. If he can shake the injury bug (and that is always an if), then Collins will have his chance to sponge everything he can from Riley this fall.
Opponents will key on hot names like Williams and Briningstool. They will be looking for Shipley and Mafah out of the backfield.
While defenders are worried about the big names, Collins will have his chances to find the soft spots. If Klubnik can find him, he has a chance to be a comeback player.
Riley’s system has a way of giving all receivers opportunities, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it will be ‘pass-catcher by committee’ this season for the Tigers. I also wouldn’t be surprised if the clutch receiver who gets the big first down or touchdown is Beaux Collins. Once the silly stereotypes are set aside, all the real variables point to a bounce-back season.