Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott was asked about his starting quarterback’s comments about his lone interception, following the Tigers 30-20 win over Florida State this past Saturday.
On D.J. Uigalelei’s interception, he indicated that he had one read on the play in question — get the ball to Joseph Ngata. Except there was one problem with that, Ngata was in double coverage.
“That one right there, that was kind of a called play,” Uiagalelei said postgame. “That was the guy I was supposed to throw to. I just tried to give him a chance. It’s a called play where that was the guy I only had the option to throw to and that was the play call. I gotta put it in a better spot, give him a better chance. He did a great job, but I just gotta give him a better ball, though.”
There seemed to be a level of confusion postgame surrounding Uiagalelei’s comments on the interception, so Elliott had a chance to clarify them during Monday’s media availability.
“We have some plays designed where we say, ‘We’re going to this guy no matter what,’” Elliott explained. “Ngata has to do a good job of trying to make sure he becomes a defender and not get it picked off. But, there’s certain situations where we give [Uiagalelei] some reads and there are certain situations where we’re gonna throw it up to this guy and let him make a play.”
The play was designed to go to Ngata, even though Florida State had safety help over the top.
Elliott went into detail about what Clemson saw pre-snap and why they targeted Ngata specifically.
“They had safety help, but you had man-coverage and you got one of the best players in man-coverage and you were hoping that they were going to rotate a little bit and try to get him isolated to the field,” he said. “Yeah, that’s more on coaching than it is on D.J.”
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