In last week’s victory over Wofford, 12th-ranked Clemson barely threw the football to the tight end.
In fact, of the 12 players who caught a pass in the Tigers’ 49-10 victory, only one was by at tight end – an 11-yard completion to Jordan Leggett. Only one other time was a tight end targeted on a play, which went incomplete to freshman Garrett Williams.
But don’t figure the lack of passes thrown to the tight end in the season opener to be the norm. Clemson still has big plans for the tight end position in the passing game.
The reason for the lack of production last week was due to the Terriers’ soft coverage. Quarterback Deshaun Watson took what was made available to him, which were largely check downs and screens.
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney says the more they prove they can execute in those situations, teams will eventually begin to challenge the line of scrimmage. That’s when a player like Jordan Leggett will be able to prove what he can do.
“Leggett is a guy as we get through the season and get people playing man-to-man and things like that … we are going to see that. People are not going to line up and play soft coverage on us all day,” he said. “We are going to see people that are going to challenge us. They’re going to play man-to-man coverage. They’re going to try and stop the run and that is when our passing game has to be at its best.”
The Tigers (1-0) could see some man coverage on Saturday when it hosts Appalachian State at 12:30 p.m. in Death Valley. The Mountaineers like to play aggressive at times and want to get after the quarterback. That’s when the opportunity to get the football to the tight end might present itself.
“We have to be able to win matchups and Jordan and (Stanton Seckinger), Jay Jay (McCullough), those guys will be huge in winning some of those one-one-one battles for us,” Swinney said.
With wide receiver Mike Williams out indefinitely with a neck injury, the Tigers could use their abundance of tight ends to out flank a team in order to create a miss-match, especially in the red zone. That will give Watson another tall target, or two, to be able to get the ball to.
Leggett is 6-5, 250, while Seckinger, who is expected to play on Saturday, is 6-5, 240. McCullough is 6-3, 245, Williams is 6-3, 225, Milan Richard is 6-2, 245 and Cannon Smith is 6-4, 260.
“We have the ability to formation however we want to formation,” Swinney said. “We don’t have to change positions or anything like that, we just create formations.”