Richardson Believes He Has 'Four Guys That Can Play'

Following his promotion prior to the 2021 Cheez-It Bowl, Kyle Richardson now has purview of Clemson’s tight ends as Passing Game Coordinator/Tight Ends Coach. His 2022 group will feature one of the offense’s most respected veteran leaders and two young talents who are primed for larger roles after ascending the depth chart in 2021.

CLEMSON, SC—Following his promotion prior to the 2021 Cheez-It Bowl, Kyle Richardson now has the purview of Clemson’s tight ends as Passing Game Coordinator/Tight Ends Coach. His 2022 group will feature one of the offense’s most respected veteran leaders and two young talents who are primed for larger roles after ascending the depth chart in 2021. 

The unit is expected to be led by Davis Allen, the senior whom former Offensive Coordinator Tony Elliott once called “his favorite player on the team” in a meeting with ESPN announcers last fall. Allen assumed the starting role on a full-time basis early in the 2021 season and started 10 games for the Tigers, tying for the team lead with three touchdown receptions. He enters his first offseason as an incumbent starter with seven career touchdown catches, three shy of becoming the sixth Clemson tight end ever to catch 10 career touchdown passes.

However, it is not only Allen whom the Tigers believe they can count on--they have four guys that are ready to contribute.

"We got four guys in the room right now and all four guys can play and have played," Richardson said. "You got Davis Allen. You got Sage Ennis, which we've already talked about. You got Luke Price who's the grandpa in the room. He's going on year six. He's challenging me for as much time in the building as I've had. But you got Luke, who's played a ton of football here as a walk-on and earning the scholarship. And then you got Sage who was young last year and had to be thrown into fire at times. Now you got those four guys that's got all different levels of experience. And all four of those guys bring something different to the table. What we have to do as coaches is find ways to mix and match their strengths in order to make our offense go.

"Going into fall camp, everybody in the run, there's going to be eight guys in that tight end, and they're all going to be in fall camp. I'm looking forward to working with all of them and putting those pieces of the puzzle together and how we're going to use those guys. We got a good group of depth and that's something that obviously last year we started running out of that position. So it's going to be fun to be able work with those guys."

The Tigers, who went 10-3 in 2021 and finished 14th in the final Associated Press Poll, are the fourth team on FanDuel Sportsbook's list to win it all in 2022.