Tony Elliott understands the frustration.
He’s frustrated. His offensive coaches are frustrated. His players are frustrated.
It comes with the territory of losing a marquee matchup on primetime.
Clemson’s offensive coordinator/tight ends coach sees your messages on Twitter. Talking with reporters during Monday’s media availability, he talked about seeing messages from Clemson’s passionate fans on social media.
“It’s tough because we get embarrassed on national TV,” Elliott said. “I know I’ve already got the Twitter fingers sending me hate mail, telling me that I suck, that I need to be fired, that I need to go back to Michelin and things of that nature.
“It hurts and it hurts for a couple of reasons. It hurts because I know how much work this offensive staff and these players put in. I know how committed they are to this program. Nobody wants to go out and not play their best. That’s where it hurts.”
Elliott was asked why he would even look at Twitter in the first place.
While he doesn’t go to Twitter to look for reactions, Elliott uses it as a recruiting tool. So if he gets a notification, it could be from a recruit or a recruit’s parents.
In this instance, it was not.
“I know the fans are passionate,” he said. “I understand how passionate our fans are and what the expectation is here and it hurts. I hurt for them because they’re upset that we didn’t perform well because I know what it means for them. There’s a feeling of hurt, but we can’t wallow in our pity, right?”
Eliott acknowledged that Clemson’s offense has to change its perspective.
He knows that all eyes will be on the Tigers during their home opener against South Carolina State on Saturday, Sept. 11 and Clemson’s subsequent conference slate, as they look to respond from their 7-point loss to Georgia.
“These guys are gonna respond and I’m excited to see the growth that’s going to take place,” Elliott said. “You got a football team that cares. They care. They did what [I] asked them to do to a certain extent and they came out, they played hard, they played physical.”
“I didn’t feel like we physically got outmatched, now we got beat with some 1-on-1s, but you’re talking about NFL players going against NFL players,” he added. “You’re going to lose some 1-on-1 matchups. The biggest thing we got to do as an offense, is just focus on the details, the little things, everything being on the same page. That’s the thing about offensive football, its chemistry, its cohesion, it’s all 11 on the same page. We were off Saturday night, but we got a good group of young men. We’re gonna accept the challenge and I’m excited to see where this group is gonna finish it up.”
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