Why didn’t Clemson use its freshman receivers vs. Georgia? Dabo explains

All through preseason camp, Clemson football players and coaches raved about the natural talent of true freshman wide receivers Bryant Wesco Jr. and T.J. Moore.

In their first game, though, they were nearly invisible.

During Clemson’s 34-3 loss to Georgia on Saturday, Wesco and Moore combined to catch two passes for 12 yards — and both of the catches came on a garbage time drive in the fourth quarter when Clemson was already trailing by 31 points.

Speaking on his weekly Sunday teleconference, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney acknowledged that he and his offensive staff did a poor job of getting Wesco and Moore involved and getting the ball to the No. 14 Tigers’ best playmakers in general.

Wesco had one catch for 5 yards, and Moore had one catch for 7.

Swinney also hinted that changes to coming to the wide receiver rotation after a number of veterans failed to make much of an impact against the No. 1 Bulldogs.

“We’ve got six or seven guys that we kind of view as starters,” Swinney said. “And now that we’ve got a game, you evaluate week in and week out who’s running out there first, and that’s how you create competition and get the best guys going. So that’s a week-to-week thing on how they play, how they practice.”

Neither true freshman receiver saw a target from quarterback Cade Klubnik before the fourth quarter, and both played significantly less than starters Antonio Williams, Tyler Brown and Adam Randall, and backups Cole Turner and Troy Stellato.

Here’s how the rotation shook out, per snap counts released Monday (Clemson had 52 offensive plays but 57 total snaps, including plays nullified by penalty).

• Antonio Williams: 45 snaps (79%)

• Cole Turner: 29 snaps (51%)

• Tyler Brown: 26 snaps (46%)

• Troy Stellato: 19 snaps (33%)

• Adam Randall: 15 snaps (26%)

• Bryant Wesco Jr.: 12 snaps (21%)

• T.J. Moore: 6 snaps (11%)

Williams was the only Clemson receiver with a catch at halftime and finished with a team-high six catches for 76 yards (seven targets) in the loss.

Brown, who also didn’t get involved until late, had three catches for 25 yards.

As Turner (four targets, one catch for 1 yard) and Randall (one target, zero catches) struggled, many viewers wondered why Swinney and his staff didn’t turn to Wesco and Moore earlier.

Both true freshmen were top 50 recruits in the 247Sports composite rankings for the Class of 2024 and were viewed as potential game changers for a Tigers offense that has lacked explosiveness. Swinney said a lack of plays impacted the rotation.

“We only had 52 plays ... That’s one of the things about playing Georgia, is the time of possession,” he said. “They didn’t have a ton of plays either. So it was just very limited plays, and just never really got in the rhythm of things.”

‘More opportunity’ for freshman WRs

He added that it was Wesco and Moore’s first game and there’s a learning curve for both players. But he made it clear Clemson — which uses an in-game “touch chart” to monitor usage for receivers and running backs — didn’t get them the ball enough and needs to change that.

“You’ll continue to see those guys step it up and and get more opportunity,” Swinney said of Moore, the No. 23 overall recruit in the Class of 2024 coming out of Florida’s Tampa Catholic High, and Wesco, the No. 48 player coming out Midlothian in Texas.

Amid criticism of offensive coordinator Garrett Riley, receivers coach Tyler Grisham and the Clemson offense in general after a poor showing against Georgia, Swinney reiterated multiple times Sunday he felt the Tigers had a good game plan and have the “right people in the room” to rebound.

“We’ve gotta make sure that our playmakers are touching the ball,” Swinney said. “Sometimes, you’ve just just gotta manufacture that, make sure it happens. And we definitely didn’t do a good job of that yesterday.”