There are several areas Tony Elliott says the Clemson offense is working on to specifically improve on this spring.
The offensive coordinator says the Tigers are working on being more efficient on third-and-three situations, not turning the football over in the red zone and finding ways to assure more productivity in the running game even when things are not going well early on.
“I need to do a better job to have some variety in the plans to help those guys in those though situations. We learned from that,” Elliott said.
Elliott used last year’s loss at Notre Dame as an example of how he could do a better job from a play caller standpoint. The Irish held Clemson to a season low 34 rushing yards, which he took the blame for because he did not have a backup plan in place from a schematic standpoint.
When the Tigers played Notre Dame in the ACC Championship Game, he was prepared and so was the game plan.
“You look at the championship game, we fixed those problems technically, but then we also had enough schematic things to help those guys out,” Elliott said.
Elliott admitted similar issues came up in the Boston College game and the Ohio State game as well.
“We just have to make sure we are constantly pushing the envelope and making sure we have enough, but that we never go into a game without having enough,” he said.
One area the Tigers need more help is on the offensive line. Like Dabo Swinney admitted earlier in the week, Elliott says the Tigers need to build some quality depth on the O-Line. That was an issue in games where they struggled to run the football.
“The depth on the offensive line, we will really have to grow that depth up,” he said. “When you look at some of the struggles on the outside from the running game perspective. There were really three games where we were ineffective, rushing for less than four yards per clip.”
Clemson will continue spring workouts today behind the Allen Reeves Football Complex in Clemson.
–File photo courtesy of Clemson Athletic Communications
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