Fact or Fiction: Clemson Doesn't Use the Tight End

Let's play a game: Fact or Fiction.

Let's play a game: Fact or Fiction.

The way this game works is: I give you a position group and you tell me if they have been underutilized in the Clemson Tiger offense.

Ready?

Tight Ends.

If you said fact, you would among the majority.

"I hear that a lot, especially on the road recruiting," tight ends coach and passing game coordinator Kyle Richardson said. "Incorporate the tight end, or maybe they're not used as much at Clemson as they would be somewhere else, or their touches and blah, blah, blah. At the end of the day, you got to separate facts from fiction."

However, if you answered fact, you would, in fact (see what I did there), be wrong. 

"I did a little research on Clemson tight end usage since 2015 when we made the first playoff," Richardson continued. "96% of the time Clemson has a tight end on the field in some capacity. Whether it's run game, pass game, whatever. And then there's a percentage where there's two. Then there's a percentage where there's three. So the narrative is really false that we don't use a tight end or we don't use our tight ends.

"Now, the flip side of that is we never go into a game and say, "This wide receiver's going to get five touches. This tight end's going to get seven touches. This running back's going to get 10 touches." We don't do that. We put a game plan together to be the defense. However, that game plan sometimes changes after quarters and sometimes tweaks at half time. Whatever that brings is whoever's going to get the touches and the usage. At the end of the day, we put a tight end on the field almost every snap.

"100% we had a tight end on the field last year. Every single snap last year we had a tight end on with it. So guess what? Clemson uses are tight ends. That's the first thing. The second thing is, it's their usage within the game, it's going to be game plan specific and it's going to be what the defense gives and takes."

Even though the Tigers are going to "take what the defense gives", he also understands that it is his job as their coach to get them to a place where they are so valuable to the offense that they can't be overlooked.

"Now, for me, what do I have to do to make sure that they're fully incorporated or they're part of the game plan, is I got to push them to go practice and I got to push them to go to meetings and come out of meetings and take it to practice," Richardson said. "And when they come out of practice, we have to walk in that room up there and go, "There's no way we can go without this guy doing this. There's no way we can go play this team without these two dudes doing this." 

"So at the end of the day, they control their usage. They control game plan-specific stuff. Just because they had stars beside their name in recruiting doesn't mean we'll go, "Well, we need to throw that dude the ball next time." No. And I promise the quarterbacks ain't looking up there going, "Well, which one bought me breakfast today?" Who gets open? Who finds a way? Who can make a play and how does it work within the play that we've called? You know what I'm saying?"