The new offense with Garrett Riley at the helm wasn’t just going to snap its fingers and be great. Last season, Clemson struggled to create opportunities on the outside, and now they had lost Joseph Ngata to the NFL.

Sophomore wide receiver Antonio Williams was the bright spot from 2022, but he can’t carry the weight of an entire unit. Enter quarterback Cade Klubnik, who had never come into a season as the starter.

Starting to see the point here? It shouldn’t be so surprising that the Tigers’ wide receivers struggled to find momentum against Duke, regardless of all the positives we heard from camp.

Thankfully for Clemson, the next week presented a sparring match against FCS opponent Charleston Southern. Things didn’t start off hot, but Williams did what he does best: be reliable. He scored the first two touchdowns in the air for the Tigers before the cavalry arrived.

Junior Beaux Collins turned in the best performance out wide with seven catches for 137 yard and a touchdown. This featured a 69-yard score, where Klubnik found him in space and let him outrun the Buccaneers’ defense for the score.

Getting playmakers in space must be the name of the game for the Tigers, because they lack a true jump ball receiver. Collins was pleased with his performance and the unit as a whole after a letdown earlier in the week.

“I feel like we played amazing, man,” Collins said. “Guys like Troy Stellato being able to get out there for the first time in a while, man. It just feels good, I’m excited about our group going forward. We‘ve all put in a lot of work this summer and things like that, so it’s finally coming out.”

Troy Stellato was a name Collins was quick to mention. Previously plagued with injuries, he saw an abundance of snaps in Death Valley and made the most of it with five catches for 51 yards. It’s a great sign moving forward that he can add another gear to this unit.

Freshman Tyler Brown is another developmental piece for the Tigers, and he’s just scratching the surface. So much was said about Adam Randall during camp, it’s just time to see it on the field.

If Clemson can get the best out of Randall, it should round out a promising unit. Yes, it was against an FCS opponent, but you have to start somewhere and the Tigers did just that with over 400 yards through the air.