College Football 2011: Looking at the Clemson Tigers Spring Game

This aritcle is also featured at All About Sports.

I headed to Clemson Saturday to see what all the fuss was about with new offensive coordinator Chad Morris's up-tempo spread offense.

Now, of course, spring games don't make or break a season. I don't put much stock in the results, but I do look for a few things. For example, I like see to which individual players are playing well, and what parts of a team are still a work in a progress. For Clemson, I was particularly interested in how new quarterback Tajh Boyd was developing.

Boyd is every bit as athletic as advertised. He has great feet and is very quick. There is no doubt in my mind he's going to make plenty of plays this season when he runs the ball. The Tigers offense also is definitely more up-tempo than before, and I expect once it's a more polished product that it will be played at even a faster pace.

Running back D.J Howard wasn't the leading rusher in the game, as Demont Buice and Roderick McDowell had more yards, but I thought Howard was the best-looking back. Without star Andre Ellington playing and 4-star running back Mike Bellamy not there yet, I think Howard made a strong case for being Clemson's third-string back. 

Safety Jonathan Meeks had a strong game with 7 tackles, and S Desmond Brown had 7 tackles also. Heralded freshman DE Corey Crawford came up with 2 sacks. Dawson Zimmerman averaged over 52 yards a punt and is going to be a special teams weapon this year.

That's the good news. The bad news is the passing game looked like a mess.

Balls were overthrown, thrown in the dirt and dropped by receivers as the Clemson passers went 19-61. WR DeAndre Hopkins looked good, but I thought the rest of receivers were uneven at best. I'd be surprised if 5-star WR Sammy Watkins wasn't starting by the third game.

Boyd struggled throwing and so did backup Cole Stoudt. Stoudt actually has a nice arm, but looked out of place running the offense. He's a pocket passer and I believe he'd be more suited to a pro-style offense. If Boyd goes down, this offense will have problems. Even if he plays, there are apparent issues.

I've heard you can't judge quarterbacks in a spring game, but I know what I saw, and the passing part of the offense needs work.

It was a mixed bag in the spring game. There were some nice defensive performances, but I saw an offense that is still in its infancy. Good thing Clemson opens the season with Troy and Wofford before playing Auburn. That will basically be like have two more weeks to work out the kinks in the offense.