Clemson has a few more trick plays up its sleeve involving its offensive line.
“We have a couple of them,” left guard Eric Mac Lain said earlier this week. “I’m throwing a pass to Mitch (Hyatt) so you guys need to look out for that. I can’t tell you too many of the details, but it is going to be good.”
The trick play that led to Jordan Leggett’s 34-yard touchdown on Clemson’s opening drive against Miami was pretty good, too. When the ball was snapped, Mac Lain and his four friends all stood still as the Hurricanes ran past them in chase of quarterback Deshaun Watson, who sprinted to his right. As the defense went past them all, Watson threw the ball back to Leggett, who had all five of his 300-pound friends in front of him as they cleared the way for an easy touchdown.
“We always try to execute it to the best of our ability in practice, but in the back of our minds we are like, ‘Are we really going to run this play?’ But we did and we executed it to perfection, I think. I’m just happy that they called it,” Mac Lain said.
Clemson’s coaches are equally as happy by what they have gotten out of Mac Lain, a converted tight end who has an opportunity to play in more games than any other Tiger in history before it is all said and done.
Mac Lain moved to the offensive line as a freshman after playing 38 snaps at tight end. Though he played just 10 snaps at offensive tackle, it was obvious to everyone, including Mac Lain, that moving inside was a natural fit for him.
“The circumstances were just Mother Nature,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said. “He just liked to eat, he got big. He was a big-boned kid that was trying to do everything he could to stay in that 260-265 range. I think he finally realized his best future was to move inside.
“A couple of biscuits later he was 300, kind of a natural progression there.”
Mac Lain has spent the last two years working primarily as a reserve guard and tackle. Due to a slew of injuries on the offensive line last year, he played in all 13 games and started one. He began this season as the starter at left guard and has been there ever since, playing in all seven games and registering the second most snaps on the team at 429.
“He’s done a great job, he really has. It wasn’t an easy transition,” Swinney said. “He played tight end his whole life. Moving into the OL was a different deal for him. But, man, has he played well for us. More importantly, he has been a great, great leader for us.”
Mac Lain’s leadership has helped a lot with the maturation of freshman Mitch Hyatt at left tackle. Inserted into the starting lineup way sooner than the coaches who have liked thanks to the departure of Isaiah Battle over summer, Hyatt has prospered under Mac Lain’s leadership, and Mac Lain has prospered by playing next to a very talented football player.
Together the two have helped Clemson’s offensive line play perhaps its best since the days of when the Fry Boys (Roman and Dustin), Nathan Bennett, Marion Dukes and Barry Richardson were paving the way for running backs James Davis and C.J. Spiller.
“It’s the best offensive line that I have been a part of,” Mac Lain said.
Clemson, who will visit NC State on Saturday, is currently averaging 215 yards per game on the ground which ranks third in the ACC and 24th nationally. The Tigers have rushed for at least 200 yards in five of their seven games this year, including 416 in last week’s rout of Miami.
“It was fun to be tenacious and to really get after them,” Mac Lain said. “You have to have somewhat of a nasty streak to do something of that nature.”
Or just want to play on the offensive line.