Fit to a Tee: Freshman receiver taking Clemson’s offense to a new level

Tee Higgins’ confidence has sky rocketed over the past two weeks as he has gone from a freshman trying to adjust to college football to an impressive playmaker at wide receiver.

The Tennessee native had nine catches for 262 yards and two scores in blowout wins over The Citadel and South Carolina after managing eight grabs for 83 yards in Clemson’s first 10 games of the year.

Higgins had a breakout performance against The Citadel, leading the Tigers in receptions, yards and touchdowns, and a week later led Clemson in receiving yards against the Gamecocks.

“I’ve got way more confidence now in what I can do,” Higgins said after the win over USC. “They called my number. I was just hoping I could make a play and I did. It felt real good.”

Higgins had 84 receiving yards against South Carolina with all of them coming in the second quarter.

Two of his three catches came on third downs to extend drives. Clemson went on to score both times to grab a 20-0 lead heading into halftime.

“Just a matter of time,” Tigers coach Dabo Swinney said. “Sometimes it just takes a little while to really get comfortable to where the game slows down enough to where you can play fast and play fluid and play with confidence, and that’s where he is right now… I’ve seen it coming all year long.”

Higgins has also been aided by his understanding of the playbook.

The 6-foot-4 wide out has been listed as the third string receiver behind Deon Cain and Diondre Overton throughout the year, but he was able to play some slot against South Carolina.

Higgins’ longest catch of the day came when he was in the slot and matched up with USC’s 5-foot-9 defensive back Jamyest Williams. Higgins beat Williams for a 40-yard gain on third-and-4 near midfield to set up a Clemson touchdown just before the half.

“That was something we game planned for South Carolina, trying to get some mismatches just with his size on some of the guys they had covering him in the slot,” co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott said. “We really put him in a similar situation where we’ve put Hunter Renfrow.”

Scott said Higgins is much further along than during the first half of the season, and he could be moved aroundagainst Miami.

“Tee has definitely emerged as a big-play threat,” Scott said. “Tee is one of those guys that has the rare combination of great size, length, catch radius to go along with really good speed and quick feet. I think Tee’s confidence is continuing to grow and he’s going to be a special player.”

This story was originally published November 29, 2017 at 4:27 PM.