<body><div><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3fQxUD_0wEd5LoN00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3fQxUD_0wEd5LoN00" width="1200" height="628" >On Saturday, <a href="https://247sports.com/college/clemson/">Clemson</a> led <a href="https://247sports.com/college/virginia/">Virginia</a>, 41-17, with 4:47 to play.As one does, head coach <a href="https://247sports.com/Coach/dabo-swinney-236/">Dabo Swinney</a> put the reserves into the game. That's when the chess match began. <a href="https://247sports.com/coach/Tony-Elliott-1265">Tony Elliott's</a> offense went on a nine-play, 65-yard drive in two and a half minutes to push the lead back to two scores. Elliott then called an onside, which the Tigers recovered. That's when Swinney decided to give it right back to his former assistant."That's what I told those guys — when we put the subs in, they don't call timeout and say, 'Oh, they put the backups in, let's put our backups in.' They don't do that," Swinney said. "It doesn't work that way. So they went tempo, no-huddle, and they're flying down the field and scoring on those guys. And then they onside it. Yeah, it's 16 points, but it's technically a two-score game, so I'm like, 'Well, we're going to go score again.' And so we did."<a href="https://247sports.com/Player/cade-klubnik-46056879/">Cade Klubnik</a> came off the bench, back into the game, and fired another touchdown to <a href="https://247sports.com/Player/TJ-Moore-46135215">T.J. Moore</a> to extend <a href="https://247sports.com/college/clemson/">Clemson's</a> lead back out to 23 points.But Elliott wasn't finished, either. One play, 75-yard touchdown."We put the subs back in there, and they go right at number one," Swinney said."But hey, [Branden] Strozier's gotta get better. He's got a job to do. He's a talented kid, and he hasn't played a lot, so you gotta learn from it."After the final touchdown, Swinney tipped his cap across the field to his coaching offspring."It was a good call," Swinney said. "I mean, he went at our young corner out there and took a little shot. I saw him smiling over there, so I just tipped my hat to him. They kept playing. I tried to call the dogs off, but he wouldn't let me."This isn't the first time that the Tigers' backups have caused a warped final score. <a href="https://247sports.com/college/clemson/">Clemson</a> led <a href="https://247sports.com/college/north-carolina-state/">NC State</a>, 59-14, entering the fourth quarter before allowing 21 unanswered points. <a href="https://247sports.com/college/stanford/">Stanford</a> scored a late touchdown, as well. Last week in Winston-Salem, it wasn't as big of a problem.But the problem reared its ugly head again on Saturday afternoon. Swinney has a tendency to 'let his players play' late in blowouts — Elliott learned that in the 10 years on his staff."I didn't see that the last couple of weeks, but this week with some guys that got a chance to get in there and play, Tony [Elliott] wasn't subbing," Swinney said. "Tony kept playing … he gives me credit for that. There were a lot of opportunities in the fourth quarter for us to get some of these guys that we need to get better. The guys are good enough to play, but I think sometimes, they think they're not gonna play, and they don't quite work through the week like they need to work. That'll be something that we'll spend a lot of time on this week."It's perhaps even more frustrating for a guy like <a href="https://247sports.com/Player/tj-parker-46112804/">T.J. Parker</a>, whose unit put the team in a position to allow less than 20 points and 206 total yards. The Tigers' bench came in and allowed 140 yards on 10 plays in less than three minutes of game clock while on the field."When the young guys got in and they started giving up points, I told them, 'The standard don't change because you guys get in the game," Parker said. "You guys have to be ready, you got to be prepared, because at the end of the day, they're not gonna take their starters out.' So my mindset for them is, you've gotta lock in, key in because what you watched us do — you've got to go out and do the same thing. Just because we get out don't mean the game is over with, you get to be lackadaisical — no, they're going to see that and they're going to attack that.""At the end of the day, we've got a standard to play to, we don't play down to our opponent, regardless of what it is. So we've got some things to fix for the young guys and we'll attack it in the bye week. [...] We've just got to keep playing to our standard. No matter who's in the game, if we had a play go our way or not, we've just got to keep playing, forget about the last play, next-play mentality. You've got to treat every play like it's the most important play of the game."<a href="https://247sports.com/college/clemson/">Clemson</a> is entering its second bye week of the season. There have been a lot of positives through the first seven games, but the reserve units on defense haven't been one."If we do get up 50 or 40, whatever it is, guys got to be ready to play," Parker said.</div></body>

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Clemson frustrated with continued struggles by backups on defense: ‘They think they’re not gonna play’

On Saturday, Clemson led Virginia, 41-17, with 4:47 to play. As one does, head coach Dabo Swinney put the reserves into the game. That's when the chess match began. Tony Elliott's offense went on a nine-play, 65-yard drive in two and a half minutes to push the lead back to two scores. Elliott then called an onside, which the Tigers recovered. That's when Swinney decided to give it right back to his former assistant.

Clemson frustrated with continued struggles by backups on defense: ‘They think they’re not gonna play’

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