If there was one thing that Clemson coach Dabo Swinney harped on after last season, it was that his team wasn’t good enough around D.J. Uiagalelei.
Of course, the junior quarterback wasn’t blameless with his performance in his first full season as a starter, but Swinney was pretty clear that Clemson’s supporting cast was going to need to be better, in order for Uiagalelei to elevate his level of play.
Swinney was asked following Clemson’s 41-10 win over Georgia Tech if he saw what he was hoping for on Monday night in Atlanta.
“Absolutely. Blake Miller, he had a couple of miscues,” Swinney said. “He got beat inside one time. Just footwork. Some things, but man, a true freshman out there getting his first snaps in college.
“I saw what I needed to see. Again, (Jake Briningstool), critical play. Big plays by (Davis Allen). We’re a lot better around him for sure, and that makes him better. Then, if he’ll continue to improve on the things that he needs to improve on from last year, then we’ll be better overall.”
Some plays that were made during Monday’s contest were ones that Clemson wouldn’t have made and didn’t make last year. With Uiagalelei in particular, what did Swinney see from him during Monday’s game that he wasn’t consistently able to do during the season before?
“He didn’t make a bad play worse,” Swinney said. “Took care of the ball outside the one play and put the ball on the money, and I thought he pushed through the adversity.”
Plays like when he lateralled the ball to Will Shipley, while he was going down late in the third quarter.
“That’s a play we didn’t make last year,” he said. “We didn’t make that play. I think about the N.C. State game. Clemson fans remember that. You remember that? He kind of ran and flipped that thing to Shipley, and Shipley dropped it. He probably would have gone 60 yards.
We didn’t make some of those plays. Then, again, just I think just his strength, his grit, and just where he is physically. Just finding a way, man. He has some creativity to him. That was a big play. I thought that was a huge, huge play. Downhill run by Shipley to go get it.
“Those are the plays you got to make. That’s football. I mean, that’s the type of ball plays that you have to make to be a good offense. It’s not always going to go according to the script. You’ve got to make plays. Sometimes when maybe it’s not as clean or it’s not there. I loved how we were able to do that down the stretch.”
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