CLEMSON — After giving up nine tackles for loss, six of those sacks, in Saturday’s loss to No. 4 Miami, the performance of Clemson’s offensive line has been under scrutiny.
It also did not help that Tigers ran for just 93 yards–not counting sacks–and allowed quarterback Tait Reynolds to be pressured 20-plus times. It other words it was a bad night for Clemson’s big men up front, who had shown signs of improvement during the Tigers’ three-game winning streak prior to Saturday night.
During Monday’s conference call with the media, Dabo Swinney was asked if he considered going into the transfer portal this past off-season to find new offensive linemen or if he was content with the guys he already had in the room.
“Both,” Clemson’s head coach replied. “First of all, I trust (offensive line coach) Matt Luke. I do not want anybody to handle that room other than Matt Luke. He’s outstanding. We looked at two or three guys (in the portal), but we did not get them for one thing.”
And though they failed to secure any offensive linemen from the transfer portal, Swinney confirmed they still felt good about what they had.
As for why the Tigers struggled against Miami and took a step back in their progression on the offensive line, Swinney has a theory. He thinks continuity, or lack thereof, has something to do with it.
“That has been an issue too,” he said. “We really have not had any continuity. Sadler did not play in the LSU game, he was out. Then Elyjah Thurmon was out.”
Thurmon got hurt against California on Sept. 25, and though he was available, he did not play against the Hurricanes. Sadler missed the LSU game due to suffering an injury in the preseason.
“You need to get some continuity in there, and then we played well against Cal. We played really well,” Swinney said. “We took a big step forward and played really well. So, we just have to create some consistency.
“We like the guys we got, and it is our job to coach them up and make them better. Again, I have all the confidence in the world in Matt Luke. They do not get any better than Matt Luke. I can just tell you that right now. I trust him. He will get them better.”
Clemson has an open date in the schedule this week and returns to action on Oct. 17 when it hosts Charleston Southern. Swinney feels the Charlston Southern game can be a great opportunity to get a lot of their young guys more playing time and experience so they can continue to build along the offensive line.