Clemson Football: Offseason Goals for Tigers' Offense

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Clemson Football: Offseason Goals for Tigers' Offense

By: Zach Gilliland, bleacherreport.com

During former offensive coordinator Chad Morris’ tenure, the Clemson Tigers found record-breaking success offensively. During his four seasons, the Tigers put up some of the best offensive numbers in school history, including having the highest scoring offense ever at Clemson in 2012.

Now Morris is gone, so where does that leave head coach Dabo Swinney and company?

Swinney immediately promoted Jeff Scott and Tony Elliott to serve as co-offensive coordinators, and it will be Elliott who calls the plays next season. The returning cast looks almost identical to that of this season, but how much of a factor will having a new offensive coordinator have?

The Tigers were above average this season offensively, but the kind of consistency that wins championships just wasn’t there. When quarterback Deshaun Watson was in the game, the offense was clicking and firing on all cylinders, but the Tigers struggled in the regular season with him injured.

So what will it take for the Tigers offense to get back to being one of the best in the nation? Here are three things the Tigers offense should be focused on this offseason.

 

A More Efficient Run Game

The Tigers were not consistent running the football this season. Wayne Gallman came on strong late in the year—finishing with three games over 100 rushing yards—but there were games when the Tigers couldn’t get much at all going on the ground.

That has to change next season if the Tigers want to compete for a national championship. Watson has the potential to be one of the best quarterbacks in the country, but the offense needs a solid running game to get things going.

Swinney’s group has plenty of potential at the position, so we should see improvements. Gallman, Tyshon Dye and Adam Choice all return as sophomores, and C.J. Davidson and Zac Brooks will provide veteran leadership to the position.

A lot of the problems with the run game were due to the fact that the Tigers just didn’t have enough healthy bodies up front. The offensive line was very thin from a depth standpoint, but this unit has a chance to recover physically and improve collectively this offseason.

 

Offensive Line

Speaking of the offensive line, it has to improve before the Tigers can consistently compete with the top teams in the country. The Tigers allowed 27 sacks this season, which was tied for 68th in the nation. Watson seems to have a very high football IQ, but any quarterback will make mistakes every now and then under pressure.

If the offensive line can get a strong push for the running game and give Watson time to utilize his many weapons, this unit could be scary good in 2015.

 

Develop the Backup Quarterbacks

I’m sure this area will receive much more attention this offseason with Brandon Streeter in as the quarterbacks coach, because this was an area that needed to be better in 2014. Tucker Israel and Kelly Bryant will both enter the picture in 2015 and compete for the backup job, along with Nick Schuessler.

Watson has missed time due to injury on three different occasions since coming to Clemson, so it’s unclear how he will hold up physically next season. The Tigers will need to have all of the backups prepared, because they may be relying on one of the true freshman signal-callers at some point during the year.

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