Clemson’s thrilling come-from-behind win over North Carolina on Saturday gives the team a lot of positive momentum heading into its trip out west to Cal.
However, before we start diving into the Golden Bears, let’s take another look back at the 28-20 win over the Heels as we dive into the snap counts and the PFF grades.
Snap Counts (PFF Grades)
Quarterback
- Tait Reynolds: 72 (72.7)
In his first career start, the freshman quarterback improved his grade by almost 20 points from last week’s win over Georgia Southern. Reynolds is showing a lot of growth in a short amount of time.
Running Back
- Gideon Davidson: 62 (68.6)
- Jarvis Green: 7 (59.5)
- Chris Johnson Jr.: 3 (57.5)
Davidson had his strongest showing yet, going over 100 rushing yards for the first time in his career, as well as scoring his first touchdown.
Wide Receiver
- T.J. Moore: 63 (62.9)
- Bryant Wesco: 63 (58.2)
- Tyler Brown: 44 (59.3)
- JuJu Preston: 13 (57.7)
- Gordon Sellers: 10 (54.9)
- Tristan Smith: 5 (56.4)
- Chris Denson: 2 (55.5)
Moore extended his streak of consecutive games with a reception to 30. He became the 12th player in school history to record a 30-game reception streak.
Tight End
- Olsen Patt-Henry: 54 (63.8)
- Christian Bentancur: 34 (67.9)
Bentancur had a really good game, catching his first touchdown of the season.
Offensive Line
- Brayden Jacobs: 72 (64.7)
- Harris Sewell: 72 (67.4)
- Elyjah Thurmon: 72 (54.6)
- Collin Sadler: 49 (62.8)
- Ronan O’Connell: 38 (57.0)
- Grant Wise: 34 (56.6)
- Easton Ware: 23 (55.9)
The freshman Wise saw by far his most extensive playing time of the year. After another slow start, the unit as a whole seemed to improve as the game went along.
Defensive End
- Will Heldt: 51 (77.2)
- Jahiem Lawson: 47 (73.4)
- London Merrit: 33 (66.5)
- Darien Mayo: 27 (67.2)
- Caden Story: 2 (67.5)
The ends have now played well in two straight. Merritt continues to show a lot of growth.
Defensive Tackle
- Andy Burburija: 34 (59.4)
- Amare Adams: 32 (58.9)
- Champ Thompson: 32 (53.8)
- Devarrick Woods: 20 (58.0)
- Vic Burley: 9 (67.9)
- Dietrick Pennington: 1 (60.0)
After returning from his suspension, Burley was the highest-graded player on the interior.
Linebacker
- Sammy Brown: 61 (49.6)
- Jeremiah Alexander: 41 (57.5)
- Fletcher Cothran: 15 (74.9)
- Kobe McCloud: 7 (66.2)
- CJ Kubah-Taylor: 6 (52.0)
Outside of getting bulled over by TE Jelani Thurmon on one play, Cothrann had another solid outing, including a forced fumble.
Corner/Nickel
- Ashton Hampton: 67 (72.5)
- Eliott Washington: 51 (76.5)
- Branden Strozier: 22 (72.3)
- Tink Kelley: 11 (63.4)
- Corian Gipson: 2 (61.3)
The corners were once again extremely effective in pass coverage. One thing worth noting here. Gipson’s snaps decreased substantially this week at nickel. He played 43 last week.
Safety
- Jerome Carter: 68 (61.5)
- Corey Myrick: 67 (65.0)
- Ronan Hanafin: 60 (59.3)
- Kylon Griffin: 4 (63.5)
Explanation of Grades
– Anything 85 and over is considered NFL caliber
– 84-79 is “very good”
– 78-68 is “above average”
– 60 is “average” and is where each grade begins, then goes up or down
– 59-50 is “below average”
– Below 50 is “poor”
Photo courtesy of Bart Boatwright/The Clemson Insider