The subtle offensive wrinkle that helped Clemson pile up passing yards against USC
As Clemson coaches studied film of South Carolina’s top two cornerbacks —Jaycee Horn and Israel Mukuamu — leading up to Saturday’s rivalry game, it was impressed with what it saw.
The Tigers trust their receivers, led by Tee Higgins and Justyn Ross, to make plays against anybody in one-on-one coverage, but they also wanted to try to find favorable matchups for Higgins and Ross against the Gamecocks.
With two weeks to prepare, Clemson added some wrinkles to its offense South Carolina wasn’t prepared for. They helped the Tigers pile up 38 points and 527 yards of offense as Clemson won its sixth consecutive game in the series with a 38-3 victory.
“You start getting into the end of November and end of December is when we kind of start going back and digging into some of our better things we save for the postseason,” Tigers co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott said. “You’ve got a lot of things on video... We’ve gotta be very conscious to change things up.”
Ross and Higgins, who usually line up on opposite sides of the field outside, spent a good bit of time on the same side of the field and with one in the slot against USC.
As a result, Clemson was often times able to get Higgins and Ross matched up against a safety or nickel instead of Horn or Mukuamu.
Higgins caught a pair of touchdowns and Ross caught one. Horn and Mukuamu weren’t in coverage on any of Trevor Lawrence’s touchdown tosses to his top two receivers.
“This time of the year, that’s when we kind of start moving these guys around, getting them in different positions, trying to find matchups,” Scott said. “We had a lot of respect for their corners — 24 and 1 are both really good players. So we just wanted to come up with some ways to get Tee and Ross in the slot, get matched up on some other guys.”
In total, Higgins and Ross combined for eight catches for 100 yards and no touchdowns when defended by Horn or Mukuamu and five catches for 112 yards and three touchdowns when defended by anyone else.
“We get into that championship phase, that’s when we’re really going to start leaning on those guys,” Scott said. “Haven’t really needed to do a lot of that in some of the games earlier this year, but getting to this time of the year, this is where you’ve really gotta take off and need our best players to perform.”
