They weren’t his exact words, but when thinking back to Clemson’s most recent meeting with Florida State, head coach Dabo Swinney expressed the general sentiment about his offense: The Tigers still aren’t exactly where they want to be, but thank God they’re not where they used to be.
“I wanted to vomit watching the Florida State game last year,” Swinney said.
It largely fit right in with the other offensive clunkers Clemson had a season ago. The Tigers had less than 250 yards through three quarters, and even when Clemson managed to move the ball with some success, points were hard to come by.
Clemson compounded its issues with against the Seminoles last October with three missed field goals and a turnover margin in the red. The nation’s No. 2 scoring defense helped the Tigers stay close, but one of their three giveaways was a strip sack of D.J. Uiagalelei that was returned for a touchdown to give FSU a three-point lead midway through the fourth quarter.
“It was so painful to watch it,” Swinney said. “We were so bad.”
Yet Clemson won the game thanks in part to one of the offense’s lone bright spots that day, then-freshman running back Will Shipley, who weaved his way through the FSU defense for 21 of his 128 yards to paydirt on the Tigers’ final possession. Shipley’s game-winner capped a three-play, 58-yard drive in the last 3 minutes, which surprised Swinney in a sense as he further reflected on it Tuesday.
“We hadn’t moved the ball,” Swinney said. “We hadn’t had a game-winning drive (all season), and all of a sudden, here we go.”
Given the ineptitude of an offense that finished last season ranked in the bottom third nationally in points and yards, Swinney chalked up that win to pure want-to and a refusal to lose. But from an execution and personnel standpoint, Clemson isn’t taking the same offense with it to Tallahassee when the Tigers make the return trip Saturday.
Clemson enters this year’s matchup with the 18th-highest scoring offense in the country. The Tigers have posted at least 30 points in every game so far. They also rank in the top 56 nationally in total yards, passing yards and passing efficiency. Uiagalelei, who’s had the benefit of throwing to the same group of receivers behind the same starting offensive line, is completing nearly 65% of his passes with 14 touchdown tosses against just two interceptions.
Swinney said that growth shows up when reviewing the film after games.
“Grading our tape this year versus last year is night and day in every area,” Swinney said. “You just watch our game (against FSU) from last year, and you’re just going, ‘Holy cow, we won this game?”
That doesn’t mean Clemson is content with where it is offensively. The Tigers took a while to get going last week against Boston College, scoring 21 of their 31 points after halftime. And finding balance has been a consistently inconsistent task.
Clemson is averaging a respectable 4.6 yards per carry but has eclipsed 147 rushing yards just twice this season. The running game has gotten a boost from Uiagalelei, the Tigers’ second-leading rusher. Swinney said it’s an area that could use some improvement all the way around.
“I think we can get a lot better,” Swinney said. “And it’s everybody. It’s not just your (offensive line). It’s making the right decisions in the run game because a lot of it will come on our quarterback, too. But it’s not just the quarterback but also the right decisions with our backs as far as trusting things, not cutting on air and pressing blocks. It’s got to all sync up.”
But Swinney said the tape this season looks a lot different than how it did this time a year ago.
“It was a frustrating season as far as just grading, correction and teaching week in and week out,” Swinney said. “This year, it’s been better. It’s a lot every week still, but it’s more stuff that you would expect. More corrections and normal teaching and not some of the just frustrating things that we did last year.”
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