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Snap Count Review: Clemson vs Boston College

6-0!

NCAA Football: Clemson at Boston College Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

Clemson is now 6-0, which is worth celebrating! It hasn't been the prettiest road to 6 wins, but it’s hard to argue with an unbeaten record (especially one that includes victories over two other top-15 AP teams).

After a sluggish first half, the Tigers pulled away from Boston College to cruise to a final score of 31-3. All snap counts come from the official Clemson report found here; numbers do not necessarily denote official plays, but rather non-special-team snaps.

Offensive Snaps

Player Name (* indicates start) Position Game Snap Count Season Snap Count
Player Name (* indicates start) Position Game Snap Count Season Snap Count
#5 DJ Uiagalelei* QB 64 404
#2 Cade Klubnik QB 2 32
#1 Will Shipley* RB 36 225
#26 Phil Mafah RB 29 123
#80 Beaux Collins* WR 47 291
#0 Antonio Williams* WR 40 244
#10 Joseph Ngata* WR 38 268
#8 Adam Randall WR 23 76
#13 Brannon Spector WR 19 129
#6 EJ Williams WR 15 112
#84 Davis Allen* TE 47 299
#9 Jake Briningstool TE 15 143
#40 Luke Price TE 3 30
#78 Blake Miller* OL 64 411
#74 Marcus Tate* OL 64 407
#56 Will Putnam* OL 64 405
#64 Walker Parks* OL 64 399
#71 Jordan McFadden* OL 64 398

Cade Klubnik received 2 snaps for the first time in 3 weeks in a somewhat strange wildcat formation while DJ lined up at receiver. Other than that, it was business as usual for Uiagalelei.

Shipley and Mafah are the 1-2 punch Spiller gets to roll out for the next few weeks with Kobe Pace sidelined for the immediate future. I’ll be curious to see how many touchdowns Shipley amasses this year - he currently has 8 on the season, if he matches that through the rest of Clemson’s games he could tie Travis Zachery for 6th all-time with 16 for a single season.

Rushing Touchdown Leaders

Rank Player TDs Year
Rank Player TDs Year
1 Travis Etienne 24 2018
2 Travis Etienne 19 2019
3 Lester Brown 17 1978
James Davis 17 2006
Wayne Gallman 17 2016
6 Travis Zachery 16 1999
7 Fred Cone 14 1950
Cliff Austin 14 1982
Emory Smith 14 1985
Travis Etienne 14 2020

I’m worried EJ Williams will enter the transfer portal sometime this off-season. While he hasn’t exactly shown out on the field like we’d hoped he would this year, he still provides depth and could produce with some more development/time; losing him would make an already thin position group even more depleted.

For the second time this season, we saw all five offensive line starters play every possible snap. Cohesion and consistency have been crucial for this offense, and it’s nice to see these five continue to build on their promising start.

Defensive Snaps

Player Name (* indicates start) Position Game Snap Count Season Snap Count
Player Name (* indicates start) Position Game Snap Count Season Snap Count
#5 KJ Henry* DE 44 266
#98 Myles Murphy* DE 41 240
#7 Justin Mascoll DE 23 158
#14 Kevin Swint DE 22 137
#99 Greg Williams DE 6 30
#3 Xavier Thomas DE 6 6
#44 Cade Denhoff DE 2 19
#33 Ruke Orhorhoro* DT 38 224
#13 Tyler Davis* DT 36 166
#8 Tre Williams DT 26 70
#55 Payton Page DT 21 111
#32 Etinosa Reuben DT 13 44
#19 DeMonte Capehart DT 10 48
#0 Barrett Carter* LB 67 370
#22 Trenton Simpson* LB 47 311
#54 Jeremiah Trotter Jr.* LB 36 232
#30 Keith Maguire LB 25 183
#42 LaVonta Bentley LB 25 114
#17 Wade Woodaz LB 6 40
#20 Nate Wiggins* CB 65 285
#23 Toriano Pride CB 42 228
#2 Fred Davis CB 31 186
#10 Jaedyn Lukus CB 7 48
#25 Jalyn Phillips* S 66 251
#1 Andrew Mukuba* S 66 155
#12 Sherrod Covil S 14 93
#27 Carson Donnelly S 6 16

Talk about making the most of your opportunities. In his first live-action of the 2022 season, Xavier Thomas collected two sacks and a forced fumble, the McFadden-O’Rourke Leather Helmet Award, and ACC defensive lineman of the week honors. I’ll let you see for yourself how many snaps he played to do all that.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL: OCT 08 Clemson at Boston College
Welcome back XT!
Photo by Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

7 defensive ends in total played against the Eagles, the most yet in a game this season. It’ll be exciting to see how quickly Thomas can manage a more steady workload in live action, but the little we saw of him on Saturday was certainly encouraging.

With Bresee out another week due to health issues, Tre Williams saw a career-high 26 snaps. Reuben with a nice field goal block; Capehart showed flashes in his 10 reps. Once Bryan returns (hopefully against FSU), the DT’s will be fully operational, but the depth has been on full display here in his absence.

Bentley recorded his second-highest snap count of the season, while Carter and Simpson both have now logged over 300 reps on the year.

Sheridan Jones and Malcolm Greene have yet to return, enabling Nate Wiggins and Toriano Pride to prove that they are capable of more than just the Wake Forest meltdown. Fred Davis also saw the field after only being used on special teams last week. No RJ Mickens or Tyler Venables this week - Philips and Mukuba played the majority of the game with some Covil sprinkled in.

The defense is rounding into a more complete form, closer to what most of us were anticipating at the start of the season. That is well in line with what we’ve often seen in the past with Clemson teams. The 2016 National Championship team nearly lost to Troy, Auburn, and NC State, and eventually dropped a home duel with Pitt before leveling up to dominate their post-season.