First-year position coach Kyle Richardson scoffed at the notion this offseason that Clemson seldom uses its tight ends, explaining there’s a lot more to the position than simply being bigger pass-catchers.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney smiled while saying this week that his program has always valued the position. He pointed to a couple of his former players at the position, Mackey Award winner Dwayne Allen and Mackey semifinalist Jordan Leggett, as a couple of examples.
While the Tigers’ tight ends may not have been as involved in the passing game in recent years as some of their predecessors, Swinney said the objective is to have the most well-rounded players at the position, something, he added, that’s not easy to find.
“I think it’s the hardest position to play in our offense outside of quarterback from a schematic standpoint because there’s a lot (to the position), and sometimes it just takes some guys a while to do it,” Swinney said. “Some years, you get a guy who’s a better route runner, but he can’t block nobody. Some years, this guy is a better blocker, and you have to kind of piece it together. So it’s nice when you’ve got some guys that can really do it all, and everybody is trying to find those guys and recruit those guys.”
Swinney believes his program’s wait for the complete package to come along again is over with Davis Allen and Jake Briningstool. And while Swinney touted the Tigers’ top two tight ends as players who’ve progressed to the point they can do a little bit of everything at the position, they’ve seen their roles in the passing game increase significantly as of late.
After a three-catch freshman season that Briningstool used primarily to get his feet wet playing behind Allen and then-senior Braden Galloway, the 6-foot-6, 235-pounder has already caught 14 passes as a sophomore, tied with receiver Beaux Collins for second-most on the team. Briningstool has had touchdown receptions in back-to-back games for the first time in his career and had a career-high 72 receiving yards against Wake Forest two weeks ago.
Briningstool, a blue-chip recruit in the 2021 recruiting cycle, was considered one of the nation’s top pass-catching tight ends coming out of Ravenwood (Tennessee) High while Allen has put in four years of work to become the weapon he’s proven to be for first-year offensive coordinator Brandon Streeter. The senior’s 13 receptions through five games are nearly half the amount he had all of last season. Two of those went for touchdowns in the double-overtime win over the Demon Deacons.
Allen and Bringinstool have combined for 18 receptions in the last two games alone, nearly half the amount Clemson’s tight ends had as a whole last season (37). Injuries played a part in that, but Streeter said making a concerted effort to take advantage of man coverage given Allen and Briningstool’s size at the position has also contributed to the increased production.
“It’s a combination of finding matchups, and it’s a combination of having confidence in those guys and lining them up in different ways,” Streeter said.
Clemson has sought out those matchups more often the closer it’s gotten to the end zone. None of the tight ends’ touchdown grabs have been longer than 12 yards the last two weeks. And there have been numerous times when Allen and Briningstool have been on the field simultaneously in 12 personnel – sometimes lining up in the slot at the time – in order to increase the chances of the offense finding a mismatch with at least one of them.
“Whether they’re coming out of the backfield making plays in the passing game or they’re lined up out wide making plays in the passing game, my confidence just continues to grow in that room and what they’ve become as players,” Streeter said.
And because Allen and Briningstool are proving to be more than capable pass-catching threats wherever they line up, Swinney and Streeter both said it’s opened things up for a passing offense that ranks 49th nationally at 261.8 yards per game, nearly 70 yards more than what Clemson averaged last year in that department.
It’s helped the Tigers increase their scoring average from 26.3 points a season ago to 41 this season, second-most in the ACC.
“When you’ve got a guy like (Allen) at the (tight end) position that’s a real factor in the run game and a real factor in the pass game, it opens up everything for everybody else because somebody has got to cover 80 (Collins), 10 (Joseph Ngata) and 0 (Antonio Williams),” Swinney said. “That’s when we’re at our best is when we can do that.”
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