CLEMSON — Dabo Swinney admitted his team has not worked on the triple option too much this season, and that was obvious in No. 17 Clemson’s 51-14 win over The Citadel Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

Though the Tigers (9-2) dominated the game, the Bulldogs ran for a season-high 288 yards and 55 carries. They averaged 5.2 yards per carry.

“We did not do a good job early. It is dive, pitch, quarterback,” Swinney said. “We had ten guys doing their job. I do not know if Sammy (Brown) has seen much of it. Not having Wade (Woodaz) hurt a little bit too.”

Woodaz missed his second straight game as he recovers from a deep thigh bruise he suffered in practice prior to the Pitt game.

Until Saturday, Clemson did a pretty decent job stopping the run, as the Tigers held five of their previous six opponents under 100 rushing yards. However that was not the case against The Citadel, who, according to Swinney, ran the tiple option more than they have shown all season.

“I told y’all last week, we would probably see a little bit more against us than what we saw on tape from some of the other games, and we did,” the Clemson coach said. “We ended up eventually getting the dive stopped, then they got outside on us a few times. Then we did not take the quarterback and let the pitch go one time.

“It is not something we have worked on a ton, so that is part of it.”

The Citadel (5-7) ran for 196 of their 288 yards in the first half, so Clemson did adjust and get things under control on the second half. The Bulldogs ran for just 92 in the second half and averaged a workman-like 3.7 yards on 25 carries.

“We tried to keep it simple, just a couple of calls, but we did not do a very good job of executing,” Swinney said. “There were missed tackles, too. Missed tackles against the triple option stuff and they ran a lot of triple option.”

Clemson will not see much triple option next week when it hosts No. 18 South Carolina. Unfortunately for the Tigers, though, it will see a lot of running in the South Carolina game.