CLEMSON — The Clemson football team is halfway through the season, and thanks to Saturday’s win over Charleston Southern, they sit at 4-2 overall.
Obviously, it is not a great record, but it is not too shabby, either.
“We are a better football team than the team that started,” Swinney said during his conference call with the media Sunday evening. “There are lot of opportunities for this team, we just have to continue to reset each week and go coach with great mindset and habits and create that mindset that our players need.”
What the Tigers need is a way to get the football down the field. Clemson’s passing game is one of the worst in college football.
The Tigers rank last in the ACC and 111th overall in passing yards per game. Their two touchdown passes rank 138 out of 138 FBS teams.
Clemson is tied at 107 nationally with 15 passing plays of 20 yards or more and rank 127 with just four passing plays over 30.
“We have to catch the ball,” Swinney said. “And it is a combination of things. Obviously, we are developing our quarterback. I think… We threw for 300 yards against a team that might be No. 1 right now.
“We know it is there. We have seen it in bits and pieces, I would say, but not in totality enough for all eleven guys doing what they need to do and finishing the plays that are there. There are lots of ways we are trying to improve.”
Freshman Tait Reynolds, who Swinney says is firmly entrenched as his starting quarterback, has completed 65 percent of his 154 passes for 943 yards. Of course, despite his 3-1 record as a starter, he has just one touchdown pass to three interceptions.
However, those numbers can be deceiving when evaluating Reynolds. His receivers have dropped several potential touchdowns, including a long one to T.J. Moore on Saturday. The junior had the ball in his hands on a diving attempt in the end zone on the Tigers’ first possession of the day.
Reynolds tried several times to go back to him, but he could not get separation near the goal line. Bryant Wesco also dropped a touchdown in the end zone in the second quarter.
It has been one of those weird seasons for Clemson’s passing game.
“There were several plays that were wide open,” Swinney said. “Again, I would say we had four touchdown opportunities on Saturday. The ball was put right (where it needs to be). You are going to have some plays where you are not going to have guys running wide open. You are going to have some body-and-body and we have to finish some of those.
“Then we also had come guys wide open and we did not throw them the ball. In particular, T.J. Moore is wide open for a touchdown, wide open. But it is one of the few negatives for Tait. He took off and scrambled. He has to sit in there, step up and throw the post for a touchdown. It was right down there near the red zone and probably would have been a 35-yard touchdown. So, there are several things that are there and we are not executing at a high level.”
The Tigers will need to get that fixed, and if they do, they might have couple of opportunities do some things in the passing game against a Virginia Tech pass defense that ranks near the bottom of the ACC in several passing categories.
Clemson and the Hokies kickoff at 7 p.m., next Saturday on ESPN.