How focused has Clemson’s coaching staff been so far this season? Focused enough that two it is coaches got themselves in trouble with their wives.

Following Clemson’s win at Louisville on Sept. 17, defensive coordinator Brent Venables admitted he had forgotten his wife’s birthday that week because he franticly tried to get his defense ready for the Cardinals on a short week of practice.

This week it is Tony Elliott who is sleeping on the couch.

The Tigers’ co-offensive coordinator mixed up the day his wife had a planned delivery scheduled for their second son, which is on Wednesday.

“There was a change in the date so I did get in a little bit of trouble for that because I did not pay attention enough to know the date was moved up on me,” he said.

Elliott had told everyone in the staff meeting that the delivery was on Thursday, but his wife’s doctor was going off call on Thursday so she wanted her doctor to be there for the delivery. So they moved the delivery up to Wednesday.

Tamika told Elliott, but with all the distractions and prep for the Georgia Tech game, it slipped his mind.

“She does a great job of handling all of those responsibilities and it takes a great deal of pressure off of me,” Elliott said. “The staff has been great. They have reached out to me and asked what they can do to help. They are very supportive and understanding with the stress that is going on at home.

“But when I walk in the building, I’m focused on BC and putting together a plan to help these young men be successful. When I go home, we talk about the baby on the way.”

It helps that the guy in the offensive meeting room, who also helps with the game planning, is Elliott’s best friend and co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott. On Sept. 24, a week after the Tigers’ big-win at Louisville, his wife Sarah gave birth to their daughter, Savannah.

Scott will of course help Elliott with the game plan and with practice as No. 6 Clemson prepares for Boston College this Saturday, while the wives will help Tamika with the new baby.

“It’s just the culture here, and it is not just the coaches, but their wives. They are unbelievable,” Elliott said. “The amount of support she has had throughout this entire process. Her and Sarah kind of having to go through it together has kind of eased the load a little bit.

“It will get a little hectic when Baby Ace does come, and then A.J. is at the house running around and trying to transition him to having another baby in the house. But we have some family coming in to help and support her there so we can continue to do what we need to do here and focus on BC and the remainder of our games.”

Elliott will need that focus as he game plans for the Eagles’ top-ranked defense.

Boston College (3-3, 0-3 ACC) leads the nation in total defense (140.3 ypg), rushing defense (41.7 ypg) and passing defense (98.7 ypg), and is second in scoring defense (7.2 ppg). They held Florida State running back Dalvin Cook, who leads the ACC with 158.4 yards per game, to a season-low 54 yards on 15 carries. Cook has averaged at least 8.2 yards on every other team and has scored in every game, but against the Eagles.

“Just looking at them statistically you have to just look at what they have done,” Elliott said. “I think they have given up just one offensive touchdown in ACC play. They are physical. They have a lot of experience, especially in the front seven.

“On the back end, they are long and athletic and their safeties can play man coverage.”

Elliott says defensive coordinator Don Brown does a great job of mixing things up.

“We are just trying to study him and see what those tendencies are,” Elliott said.

Like Brown on BC’s defense, Elliott and Scott are not doing a bad job of mixing things up offensively for Clemson.

The Tigers (5-0, 2-0 ACC) rank third in the conference in total (431.8 ypg) and scoring offense (35.4 ppg), while rushing for 195.4 yards per game and passing for 236.

“We understand in order to win championships you have to be able to run the football,” Elliott said. “You have to be able to help your defense and manage the game. I think over the course of the first four games we just had weird situations where we had to run the football.

“It was good this past week to show everybody we still have the ability to throw the ball. As we continue to develop in both of those areas, and we can come out and do both on a game-by-game basis, that is going to make us even more explosive.”

Last week, Clemson had 10 plays of 16 yards or more, while Quarterback Deshaun Watson threw for 265 yards and running back Wayne Gallman rushed for 115 more. Both produced two touchdowns as the offense racked up 537 total yards.

“We have a better feel of who we are as a team. We have good chemistry. We are working together,” Elliott said. “When they provide opportunities for us to throw the ball, we are going to throw it. When they provide opportunities to run, we are going to run it.”

But before any of that, he is going to make sure he is with Tamika on Wednesday. That will without a doubt be the best play he will call all week.