Just a couple quick thoughts on Elliott...
His offenses actually have outperformed the talent level at Clemson. We've seen them land a couple top 5 classes here recently, but they haven't had Bama/Georgia level talent as a whole up until now. Sure the offenses have benefited from having fantastic QBs along the way, but they were elite with Kelly Bryant at the spot too.
Here's a summary of year-by-year efficiency rankings from ESPN, together with 247 talent composite numbers. Remember, these are adjusted for pace/SOS, so you can remove those factors from the calculation.
View attachment 342870
A couple quick notes here:
1. Check out the overall efficiency numbers here. It's rare to see overall and offense consistently so high together, because often highly-efficient offenses score quickly, putting more strain on the defense. This is the hallmark of a gimmicky, pace-dependent, offense. It's difficult to pair a solid defense with it, which is how you get the Big XII...
For the record, Kiffin's offenses at Alabama accomplished this as well, but to a much lower degree. While the team's overall metrics were top 5 from 2014-2016, only 2014 featured a top 15 offense, and they declined each year, winding up at 24 in 2016. Kiffin's offenses at FAU / Mississippi seem more Big 12-ish, culminating in a 5th offense / 112th defense split that is pretty horrifying.
I think this says a lot about a OC's ability to actually scheme in ways other than quickening the pace. That was the task for Kiffin at 'Bama, and he did well, but the offensive efficiency at Clemson since Elliott has been pretty exceptional.
2. Efficiency has become remarkably better and more consistent since moving from Morris to Elliott as the primary play-caller, and he
is the primary play-caller, and has been since 2015.
3. Elliott has been pursued for HC and NFL jobs at a different level than Pruitt. While both had/have impressive resumes as coordinators, that speaks to something that reputable organizations see in Elliott that makes them think he's qualified for being more than a coordinator, something other programs certainly didn't see in Pruitt. If Danny White thinks this as well, given his track record I'd feel pretty confident there's something to that.
All-in-all, thanks for sticking it out with another nerd post, it's been a while since I've done one of these. I'd also rather have an accomplished head coach that's overperformed with less (i.e. Campbell for sure...) but I don't see anything here that makes me think Elliott is re-treading the Pruitt road at all.
