Clemson Football: Five keys to victory against the Duke Blue Devils

The wide receivers must get separation

Going back once again to the Lawrence days, the Tigers had a run of wide receivers that found their way into the NFL. Except for Justyn Ross, Clemson hasn’t had that kind of talent in that position group in the past two seasons, and Ross was battling foot injuries through the 2021 season.

The single biggest criticism of the wide receivers has been that they have a hard time getting separated from their defenders. This was a big problem the past two seasons when the Tigers were playing a quarterback that tended to have accuracy problems and couldn’t necessarily thread a needle to squeeze the ball into a tight space.

Antonio Williams did well as a true freshman, but he can’t do it by himself.

There are a few ways to improve separation for the receivers. One way is with the scheme. There is a fair amount of optimism that Riley will be able to ‘scheme open’ receivers.

Another way it can be done is with speed, which is why we hear Tyler Brown and Misun Kelley have impressed in fall camp, despite being true freshmen who didn’t even have the benefit of spring practice. They both enrolled in the summer.

The other way is better route running and blocking, and that is on the receivers themselves. If they have put in the work to run better routes, that will make things easier for Klubnik. If they have worked on being better blockers, it will help each other as well as running backs.

We saw a little bit of Cole Turner last year. We’ve heard hype about Adam Randall but he was impacted by injuries. Beaux Collins played well as a freshman but was slowed by injuries as well. Brannon Spector has yet to break through.

If those four men can up their game and give Klubnik a reliable target beyond Williams and Jake Briningstool, the efficiency of the passing game will skyrocket under Riley’s leadership.