Elliott Hopes Focus on Fundamentals Turns Running Game Around

Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott, who relies heavily on analytics, is getting the Tigers to focus on fundamentals this spring.

Tony Elliott's engineering background mixed with his passion to coach football helps make him a big analytics guy. 

The Clemson offensive coordinator loves numbers and evaluating where his side of the ball can get better both during and after each season, but when Elliott took a look at what the Tigers did last year on offense and what the main focus this spring is, it actually had little to do with stats.

"When you break it down, obviously you can look at stats, and you've got to respect the stats, but when you dive down on things, it really just came down to the fundamentals," Elliott said after Clemson's fifth spring practice. "It's just the proper step at the proper time, the proper communication, just really getting back to the details."

Yes, he wants to improve in short-yardage situations, especially on third down, red-zone efficiency and a more productive running game. But to accomplish those things, Elliott believes it begins with more consistent footwork.

So this spring won't be as much about implementing new elements into the offense. It's more about getting back to the basics. 

"Those are some of the areas, big picture, we're going to work on," Elliott said. "And then each position, it's kind of drilled down within their positions to the areas that they're going to improve."

Elliott is just as aware as the fans of Clemson's struggles running the ball last fall. After all, the running backs were his position a year ago, and Clemson went from 6.4 yards per rush in 2019 to 4.5 in 2020. That was even with ACC all-time leading rusher Travis Etienne available for all 12 games.

Elliott, who moves over to coach tight ends this season, believes the run-game issues were a mixture of poor fundamentals and scheme, both of which he feels can improve. 

"There was one game in particular, that first time up at Notre Dame, I needed to do a better job, you know, to have some variety in the plan to help those guys in that tough situation," Eliott said. "We learned from that and then you come back...in the championship game, and we fixed those problems technically but then we also had enough schematically to help those guys out so just making sure you know that we're constantly pushing the envelope making sure that we have enough, but never going into a game plan without having enough. 

"So those are some of the big points, and the depth on the offensive line, we've really got to grow that depth."