Tigers ready to cut Sammy loose

By Will Vandervort.

By Will Vandervort

ATLANTA — Last spring, Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris visited Oklahoma State in hopes of finding better ways to utilize the talent of wide receiver Sammy Watkins.

Like Watkins the Cowboys used Justin Blackmon, now with the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, in many different facets as he touched the football as a receiver and as a running back in reverses, orbits and in traditional backfield sets. And though 13th-ranked Clemson used some of those elements with Watkins at different times this year, it never got to fully show off how they could use one of the nation’s most explosive players.

The All-American receiver hurt those plans by first being suspended for two games due to a drug arrest last May and then by being sidelined for another game due to an illness that forced him to miss the Boston College game.

“We were able to utilize some of it, but it was hard to get him into a flow and evolve into what we really wanted to do because of the suspension and then him missing a couple of other games because he was sick. So it was really difficult,” said Morris during Saturday’s press conference at the Sheraton in downtown Atlanta. “Then you get into the meat of your schedule and you had to do what you were doing and then you had to get good at something with it.”

Eventually Watkins got some of it, and started to show flashes of his old self, again. By the end of the year, the sophomore had 708 receiving yards on 57 catches, while scoring three touchdowns. He went off on Wake Forest in Week 9 when the Demon Deacons came out with press coverage.

Watkins finished that Thursday night with eight catches for 202 yards, including a 61-yard catch and run in the second quarter that got the Tigers rolling.

“I think we all know when looking at Sammy and the way the year has went with him with the suspension early on and coming back for a game, then getting sick and missing a game, really it was a hard time for him to get into the flow of the season,” Morris said.

Morris says that’s all in the past now and they expect Watkins to get back to old form after getting a month off and having 15 bowl practices as the Tigers get set to take on No. 7 LSU in the Chick-fil-A Bowl on New Year’s Eve.

“We expect Sammy to be Sammy. Sammy needs to play well as they all do. We are going to turn him loose,” Morris said.

The last time out, Watkins was not turned loose at all. Though South Carolina may have had something to do with that, the facts were this. He caught four passes for 37 yards and that was it.

“They are using me more in a lot of different packages and are giving more touches in practice than we did in South Carolina Week,” he said. “We did not do that many things with me that week as we prepared for the South Carolina game.

“I didn’t get too many looks, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to get a lot of one-on-one matchups and get open.”

In fact, over the last five games, Watkins only ran the football two times for minus-six yards. In the previous four games he rushed the football 11 times for 102 yards.

At the end of the regular season, Watkins says he, Morris and wide receivers coach Chad Morris went back to work, looked at what he did right and wrong and have adjusted accordingly.

“We just evaluated everything and went over and decided we have to bring back the old Sammy,” Watkins said.

It’s ironic he will get the chance to bring out his old self in the same building in which many expected him to show his greatness at the start of the season. That never happened obviously, so now Watkins is looking forward to the opportunity to show he still has what it takes to be one of the most explosive players in the country.

“It was hard to watch these guys play here the first time, but at the same time I had to accept the consequences that came with it. I was happy we won,” Watkins said. “It’s going to be a hard tough game. I do think they are going to give up the yards that they gave up to Ole Miss. We have to go out there and be competitive and go up and make big plays while the defensive backs are on top of us.

“We have to go out there and play our game.”