Kyle Richardson has heard the outside noise regarding the position he coaches. Some of the chatter, he said, even comes while he’s on the road recruiting.
Why doesn’t Clemson utilize its tight ends more often? And how can they become a bigger part of the offense moving forward?
But Richardson takes exception to the nature of those inquiries for one primary reason: they’re not based in truth, he said.
“At the end of the day, you’ve got to separate facts from fiction,” Richardson said.
The Tigers’ first-year tight ends coach said he did some research to debunk the myth. Richardson started with the 2015 season, when Clemson made its first College Football Playoff appearance, and found that the Tigers have had at least one tight end on the field on 96% of their offensive snaps since. Last season, that percentage was 100%.
“And then there’s a percentage where there are two (tight ends in the game),” Richardson said. “And there’s a percentage where there are three. So the narrative is really false that we don’t use our tight end.”
The notion that Clemson’s tight ends are scarcely used is derived primarily from their lack of involvement in the passing game. Davis Allen’s 28 catches were third-most on the team last season, but Clemson hasn’t had a tight end catch more than that in a season since Jarrett Leggett hauled in 46 receptions in 2016.
Richardson, who has also taken on the role of passing-game coordinator, said Clemson is never going to force the ball to any particular position in the passing game, but he added that doesn’t mean the Tigers aren’t effectively utilizing their tight ends. Blocking in the run game is just as critical of a component to playing the position.
“We never go into a game and say that this wide receiver is going to get five touches, this tight end is going to get five touches and this running back is going to get 10 touches. We don’t do that,” he said. “We put a game plan together to beat a defense. Sometimes it changes after quarters and sometimes (there are) tweaks at halftime. But whatever that brings is who is going to get the touches and the usage. But at the end of the day, we put a tight end on the field almost every snap.”
So Richardson didn’t rule out the possibility of the tight ends getting more passes thrown their way, but he’s putting the onus on the players to earn their usage regardless of what form it’s in. The position is whole again entering fall camp with Allen, a rising senior, and Sage Ennis fully healthy after missing the spring recovering from injuries.
With former blue-chip recruit Jake Briningstool, more of a hybrid at the position, also in the mix, there’s potential for more at the position. It’s up to them, Richardson said, to unlock it.
“We’ve got to do things to put the best product of offense on the field and find a way to be productive offensively, and their job is for us to go, ‘There is no way we can be productive without X, Y and Z,’” Richardson said.
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