Through Clemson’s first seven games struggles amongst the wide receivers have been pronounced.
According to StatBroadcast, in Saturday’s loss at Pittsburgh the Tigers dropped 17 passes which certainly did not help matters.
Beaux Collins caught five passes for 23 yards against the Panthers. He self-diagnosed the problems in the room and reiterated that the drops do not indicate a lack of hard work or poor instruction by wide receivers coach Tyler Grisham.
“He’s really telling us to have intense focus,” Collins said on Monday. “A lot of the reasons why we have had drops and things like that are because we don’t start the play with the right intensity. So just finishing the play has been the main focus in the receiving group.”
“We stay after practice and do extra work on the jugs machine, we just have to put more effort into the little things like that and finishing plays,” he continued.
Collins said the lack of focus manifests in trying to make plays before the ball arrives which takes their eyes off the play and leads to drops.
But the freshman’s main goal this week is to focus on his own deficiencies to make every catch and improve his blocking.
“For me I would just say finishing plays and helping my teammates trust me as far as coming down with the ball every time the ball is thrown to me,” Collins said. “I could do a better job of blocking on the perimeter, so I just need to work on finishing plays.”
Clemson’s current position in the middle of the ACC and outside of contention for the College Football Playoff or a major bowl frustrates Collins. But he knows the team still shows up committed to the task at hand, beating Florida State on Saturday.
“I would say it’s frustration as far as we all need to get our job done and execute,” Collins said. “But we are not splintering at all, we are staying together, every day at practice we have great practices, great energy, and things like that so there’s no splintering.”
Clemson hosts the Seminoles on Saturday at Memorial Stadium with kickoff set for 3:30 p.m.
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