2016 Clemson Football Offensive Line Participation

As is tradition at STS, we are once again taking a look at the participation numbers for each player at Clemson during the 2016 season. While number of games played is a nice top level number, looking at snap counts provides a much better idea of how much experience a player is getting. It is also a good way of determining if a player should have redshirted or not. Ideally, a player should get at least 100 snaps in a season as a freshman, otherwise a redshirt would have been a better idea barring issues with depth. Also note that all snap counts are through the Ohio State game; totals for the Alabama game have not been published by Clemson.

The offensive line is always interesting to look at in these charts. We always preach about the importance of recruiting 3-4 guys on the OL each season, but it is rare for more than 6 of them to get significant snaps. Continuity is key for the OL and outside of blowouts some of the best teams in the country play the same 5-6 guys for most of the snaps during the season.

In 2015, the starting 5 on the OL was rock solid outside of an injury to Tyrone Crowder late in the season. I 2016, things were a bit more fluid. Some poor performances led to the coaching staff giving different guys a shot at playing. Jake Fruhmorgen’s departure from the team also created a little bit of upheaval.

That’s why Sean Pollard saw so many snaps this year and Maverick Morris got a good look in relief as well. Sadly the backups weren’t quite ready to challenge the starting 5. Given some lackluster performances by the OL it would have been nice for the coaching staff to have the threat of the backups taking time from the starters for motivational purposes.

As for 2017, things will get interesting. Only 26% of the snaps are departing, and a chunk of those are from Jake Fruhmorgen. I’d argue that those snaps have already been replaced by Sean Pollard so Clemson should be ok. Even if Pollard isn’t amazing he should be more than up to the task and certainly better than Fruhmorgen.

The other big name leaving is Jay Guillermo. I know we’ve bagged on Guillermo during his time at Clemson, but he really put things together this year and did a very good job at center. It is a difficult position and he handled it well. What the coaching staff decides to do at center is going to have repercussions along the entire line and may be the second most important position battle this year.