Turning the wheel

A friend of mine from out-of-state who doesn’t follow Clemson on a regular basis e-mailed earlier this week with a two-pronged question:

1. Just how many times has C.J. Spiller burnt opposing defenses with a wheel route?

2. How in the world do opponents not know it’s coming and don’t seem prepared for it.

In particular, he wondered why opponents don’t always assign a defensive back to Spiller who at least has a chance to keep up with him.

• Against FSU, Spiller smoked LB Kendall Smith for a 58-yard score.
• At Miami, Spiller shot by a cemented LB Sean Spence for a 56-yard score.
• At Georgia Tech, he slipped S Cooper Taylor for a 63-yard TD.
• At Boston College last year, he went for a 45-yard catch that led to a touchdown.

And these were just the cases I can recall since Dabo Swinney took over as coach. Variations of this play have been in use since the Rob Spence tenure.

The latter two examples are most significant to me as the Tigers prep for Saturday’s noon game at N.C. State.

The last two times Clemson made the wheel work, it was against man coverage. Jacoby Ford is running a deep post, so the trick is getting the deep safety to follow him along with the corner – or else, well, Ford is the guy you throw deep to.

Georgia Tech, though, appeared to be in a zone blitz, with Taylor either having specific man responsibilities on Spiller (lined up at H-back, coincidentally) or simply recognizing someone oughtta turn and follow Spiller wherever he went.

Boston College is almost exclusively a zone principle team – as is N.C. State, no coincidence given the Tom O’Brien connection.

So long story short, it can be done again.

The more compelling question: How does it keep happening, especially when there are apparent tells in the formation?

The only common thread I can tell is that Clemson snaps the ball on a fairly quick count to try to keep the defense from audibling before it recognizes what’s about to occur.

One interesting aspect is that Spiller seems to typically run this route only when he’s on the short side of the field, which I assume is to increase the odds he’s facing a boundary linebacker who’s there because he’s more skilled in shorter spaces against the run.

Bobby Bowden intimated to reporters earlier this week that FSU certainly knew it was coming (everyone has film, so I’m sure all opponents have prepped for it).

But as the late ‘80s version of the G.I. Joe cartoon series used to remind us at the end of every episode — knowing’s half the battle.

Only half, in last Saturday’s case.

“ (Spiller’s) like a ticking bomb. It will tick, tick, tick, and then all of a sudden it goes off. How long can you contain him? Gosh, we contained him pretty good in the first half. I think he got loose for a 40-yard run. But we contained him pretty good.

But the second half, boy, he hit that little wheel route on us. We worked on that. I talked about it all week. We wanted to be in a certain defense when that thing came up. We were not in it, and it was just a physical mismatch.”

N.C. State has a veteran and pretty decent starting defensive line.

But the secondary is comprised of a senior, a redshirt freshman and two first-year freshmen. All three projected starting linebackers are sophomores, and redshirt freshman Terrell Manning plays a bunch, too.
With that lack of experience, I know I’d certainly be tempted to see if they recognize it coming. Then if they could stop it.

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One tidbit I forgot to drop in today’s notebook …

Swinney wasn’t TOTALLY kidding after Saturday’s game when he said he should have tried S DeAndre McDaniel as the cure to the placekicking woes.

McDaniel made the “game-winning” 37-yard field goal at the end of Wednesday’s practice.

“It was phenomenal,” Swinney said with evident embellishment. “I was just trying to see what his range was. He said he wanted to get in there and have a shot at it, so I said all right. He nailed it.

“It wasn’t pretty. But it went through the uprights. Results are all that count, right?”
Swinney promised any defender with a return touchdown that they’d get a snap on offense, and McDaniel’s crack at receiver ended prematurely when Kyle Parker fell down dropping back before his planned fade throw to McDaniel.

So Swinney was then asked if being the kicker did or could count as the offensive play McDaniel didn’t really register against Coastal Carolina.

“Absolutely,” Swinney said. “I’d already told him in the Florida State game that if we had the game in control in the fourth quarter – this was going into the game – that I’d give him an extra point.

“But I wasn’t quite comfortable … heck, I might as well have put him out there.

“It wasn’t really quite to that point, but I’d love to let him in there and see him kick one through. He’s an all-around athlete.”

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Saw the suddenly controversial video of DE Andre Branch (No. 40) earlier in the week, and quite honestly, I didn’t think twice about it being an issue after watching it.

Focusing strictly on Branch and FSU OL David Spurlock (No. 79) without watching the rest of the play, I probably would have flagged Branch for unsportsmanlike conduct.

But when you add in the context of the fumble and ensuing scrum, it appears much more likely that Branch got his hand caught under Spurlock’s helmet and basically gave him a little noogie as everyone got up.

But allegations of eye-gouging? Branch shouldn’t have given Spurlock’s head a final shove, but where in that video is there any evidence Branch’s fingers were doing anything inside Spurlock’s mask?

Florida LB Brandon Spikes gets caught poking someone’s eyes, and the witch hunt ensues.

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I drew a 5-yard delay of game penalty for requiring an extra day to get ya the transcript of the media’s interview with DC Kevin Steele from Tuesday.

Hopefully I’m not too far behind the chains to get a forecast done by tomorrow.

Excited for basketball season … but not in the middle of football season, much less a stretch title run.

Q: Is N.C. State’s offense similar to FSU’s, not to mention they have another good quarterback who’s playing well?

A: He’s a very good quarterback. He’s put up big numbers. There are similarities in what they do. They’re multiple in their personnel groupings, same personnel groupings and multiple in some formations.

I don’t think we’ll see 19 of 37 quick throws, like we did last week. I don’t think. We may.

Q: Does Russell Wilson run as much this year?

A: He’s not running as much as I remember him doing. He’s capable of doing it. Against Duke, he did.

Q: He doesn’t seem to make a lot of mistakes or interceptions.

A: The other guy (Christian Ponder) had a lack of interceptions, too. (Steele smiles)

They do throw the ball down the field a good bit. That group we just played, they had thrown the ball down the field, but had thrown a lot of quicks and screens, too.

He’s well-coached. He’s got a quick release. I think that’s the biggest thing.

Q: Is it oversimplifying to say they like to go vertical with their receivers and use their tight ends and running backs as safety nets underneath?

A: They get a lot of catches. They check the ball down a good bit. They’ll throw it vertically down field to the tight end, too.

This is kind of, welcome to our world. We’ve played the TCU quarterback, he was in the top 25. (Wake Forest’s Riley) Skinner is in the top 25 and (Miami’s Jacory) Harris and Ponder. This guy is, too.

It’s what we do. It’s what we’ve seen.

Q: What’s been the key to producing so many interceptions?

A: I think the biggest thing is, No. 1, we’ve got very good players. We’ve got good pass-rushers and a lot of talent back there.

No. 2, they’ve been very receptive to coaching and have bought into the system. They’ve been coached very well bycoach (Charlie) Harbison and up front by coach (Chris) Rumph and coach (Dan) Brooks.

I’d say we’re pretty up there in terms of number of sacks. I have no doubt it’s probably the same number of quarterback pressures.

People get excited about sacks, but coaches get just as excited about knocking him to the ground and the ball going over our heads on the sideline. That’s just as important. There has been a lot of that.

Those guys are talented players. When you go from where Rashard (Hall) went the other night to where he got to in order to catch that ball – that’s good coaching, but you can coach one guy to do that and another guy to do that and get different results based on who’s doing it.

Q: LB Brandon Maye has more pressures than even Da’Quan Bowers. How much has Maye improved in that regard, and do you really blitz that much?

A: We’re about right. We blitz when we have to. We’re capable of doing it. I think about half and half – a four-man rush and pressure.

If you’re the middle linebacker in that scheme, you’ve got a chance to factor into the inside pressures and outside pressures to both sides. Your number of snaps to that is probably higher than anybody else’s in the system.

Q: Hall’s productivity – is that a result of scheme, studying or maturation?

A: First of all he’s got very good skill. Second, he’s been very well coached. The scheme is important, but it’s the least of that.

He’s like coaching a pro. He’s very football intelligent. He’s intelligent otherwise. But there are a lot of 3.5 (GPA) guys walking around that don’t know the difference between I-pro and I-slot. He’s got a jump on things right off the bat. He knows if he’s going to get this route or that route.

If you can deduct it that quick, as fast as he does, that’s good. He can recognize it in any environment – walk-throughs, practices, film room, the game. He just sees it. He knows what’s coming.

He’s at the point now where if you make a mistake in your verbiage in explaining something, he looks at you and catches you. And you need guys like that.

Q: Dabo said Toney Baker is one of the best, toughest backs you’ve faced this year.

A: Yeah, he’s the complete package. Of course, when he came out of high school, he was extremely fast. Some would argue after the knee injury he’s slower, but he’s still fast enough.

The thing he does, he runs into contact old-school. A lot of guys run the football, but they tail off here or there. He runs into contact, and when he runs into contact, you’d better wrap him up because he lowers his shoulder.

His yards after contact, I don’t know what it is, but I know somebody’s paying for it. ‘Cuz that’s on film.

Q: You have to be pleased with what Byron Maxwell and Coty Sensabaugh gave you in relief at cornerback.

A: Yes, Maxwell and Sensabaugh and (Xavier) Brewer. That’s the thing that hasn’t been talked about a whole lot. There’s a lot of depth.

The number of guys that we have, there are places that are struggling to find one.

Then you look up front and on the edge, you’ve got numbers. It’s a pretty good luxury. Not a lot of people have that.

There are people that if they lost Da’Quan, they’d be scrambling to figure out what they were going to do, changing defenses just to be able to set the edge. Everyone would come here (at that position). Well, come here and it’s Kevin Alexander.

Q: After that 16-play drive allowed in the third quarter, you and Dabo were able to reel them back in on the sidelines. What did you say?

A: The truth of the matter is, I thought we lost our composure in that drive. There’s a great lesson there, and we have learned from it. But the flip side of that is they got back on track, quick. I mean real quick.

Q: Was it just meeting with them that settled them down?

A: There’s leadership on the team. I think they’ve bought into the process of “the next play”. Everybody loses their composure at some point in time. We all do. You lose it. The key is, do you go to the edge or do you get back on track?

Q: The corners jokingly want us to ask when you’re going to blitz them more?

A: You want to know what I tell them? You learn to cover, we’ll blitz ya.

We have fun with that. The real joke to that is, I don’t know if you remember the play, but we designed a pressure where (Chris Chancellor) was going to come off the edge and sack Skinner because the protection was set up that way.

Well, he shows it too early. And this 6-foot-6, 300-pound tackle sees it and bails out. So Chris runs right into him, smack. Well, Kavell (Conner, linebacker) was the second man through, so he gets the sack. Kavell was supposed to eat that block, and Chancellor was supposed to be free.

Chancellor let him read his mail, and he opened it and read it. So it’s like hey, we gave you one, you didn’t do it right. You had your sack. Kavell got it. You gave it to him. Kavell was gracious and thanked him for it. He knew he was going to have to run right in there and into that 6-6, 300-pound tackle. But Chris got a little hungry and ate it up for him.