Though Dabo Swinney is excited about his Clemson team playing Wofford on Saturday, because he knows what it means to the state of South Carolina, he is not as excited about facing the Terriers’ offense.
Wofford comes into Saturday’s game at Memorial Stadium ranked second in the nation at running the football at the FCS level. The Terriers are averaging 361.7 rushing yards per contest.
“They do a great job and they are incredibly well coached,” Swinney said. “Everybody thinks of Wofford and you just think of the option. They are an option football team, but they have a unique way of getting to it. They just don’t lineup and run the triple option.”
The Terriers, who have won five straight games, mostly are in the shotgun and use lots of different personnel groupings, lots of formations and lots of miss direction. Unlike the triple option, they don’t always have a dive player and sometimes look like a spread team.
“They get to their option principals with their jet (sweeps) and everything goes through those big backs and the quarterback,” Swinney said. “Basically, they are a three back offense all the time. They will get into multiple personnel groups whether it be 20 or 12, 11 or whatever.
“They force you to be really discipline and you can’t try to do too much.”
When teams have tried to do too much, Wofford (5-2, 4-1 SoCon) has made them pay with quarterback Joe Newman, who has 760 yards and scored 11 touchdowns. He is averaging 8.3 yards per carry and 108.6 yards per game on the ground. He has also thrown five touchdown passes.
Running backs Blake Morgan and Nathan Walker have also made defenses pay, along with Jacquez Allen. Morgan and Walker have combined for 692 yards and eight touchdowns and are both averaging more than 5.0 yards per carry. Allen is averaging 12.7 yards per carry and has 381 yards and two touchdowns this season.
“They do a great job,” Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables said. “They know how to get leverage and they run the triple from the shotgun for the most part. They do a really nice job. They have good backs, some good receivers that they get the ball to on some of their play-action game. The quarterbacks can run and can take it to the house.
“They do a very nice job in their presentation and the things that they present to a defense. They force you to really play with great discipline, be physical and not get bored and do the little things well.”
The Terriers will be the first option team the Tigers (8-0, 6-0 ACC) have faced this season. They used to see the triple-option offense every year against Georgia Tech when Paul Johnson was there, but first-year head coach Geoff Collins scrapped the triple option at Tech and brought in his power-spread offense from Temple.
Venables says the Terriers are somewhat similar to what Georgia Tech used to do.
“They’re similar that there is a dive, quarterback, alley and pitch player,” he said. “It is necessary, but their other presentations are quite a bit different.”
Clemson safety Tanner Muse and Venables say the Terriers’ scheme neutralizes Clemson’s skill on defense and make it a leverage and numbers game.
“They do a very nice job at understanding those things,” Venables said.
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