Clemson’s fall camp has reached an important checkpoint, and Saturday’s first scrimmage should tell Dabo Swinney a lot about where his team stands with three weeks left before LSU.
The Tigers have wrapped up their second week of preseason work, including their first two days in full pads, and now they get their first real chance to see how the pieces fit when the pressure rises. Swinney knows a scrimmage won’t answer every question, but it should reveal whether Clemson is moving the right way.
“How are they retaining the knowledge of all the things that we put in? It's their job to put on tape and demonstrate, make us play them,” he said. “As far as your progress, you see more than most of the time, 11 guys on the same page, you feel like you're heading in a good direction.”
That evaluation starts at quarterback, where Christopher Vizzina and Tait Reynolds have become one of the most talked-about battles in camp. Vizzina brings the edge of experience, along with a clear commitment to staying at Clemson rather than going elsewhere. He’s already in his fourth preseason and has logged a lot of practice reps, even if his game résumé still includes just one start.
Reynolds offers a different kind of intrigue. His arm strength and size have turned heads inside and outside the program, but he comes in with far less live-game experience after a hamstring injury kept him out for his senior year of high school.
At scrimmage speed, Vizzina’s comfort should help him, but he still has to prove he can handle the heat of a real defense. Reynolds, meanwhile, has to show that his mind is catching up to his physical tools - or let those tools overwhelm the doubts.
The middle of Clemson’s defense is another major spot to watch. The Tigers added where they could in the secondary this offseason, and the outside defensive line, led by senior Will Heldt, is expected to be a strength. But the interior remains a source of curiosity.
Sammy Brown is projected to be the headliner there, with All-American buzz and multiple preseason watchlists already following him. Beyond him, though, the linebacker and interior line groups are still mostly unproven. Swinney said early in camp that he wanted to see that the linebacker room could hold up even without Brown carrying everything, and so far he likes what he’s seen.
“It's a better room than people think. The two guys that that have probably separated a little bit, Jeremiah (Alexander) and Kobe (McCloud),” he said. “Those two guys have really given us confidence we've kind of got a top three, if you will, we feel really good about, and those guys can play multiple positions.”
Saturday also gives Clemson a chance to feel something closer to game night before the real opener arrives in Baton Rouge. The offense will try to stack drives and show how much of Chad Morris’ system it has absorbed, while the defense gets a live look at Morris’ tempo attack and a chance to sharpen itself against that pace.
McCloud said the back-and-forth in camp has already been pushing both sides.
“Those guys push us,” McCloud said. “ I just love how they’ve just been rolling.
They've been on one accord, just like the defense. Iron sharpens iron.
Everybody’s making each other better.”
That’s part of why Swinney values these scrimmages so much. Once the team is in that stadium setting, with ACC officials in place and coaches out of the way, the answers have to come from the players themselves.
“It's not what we know; it's what they know. … Everybody out of the way.
You got ACC officials, and you create a game day environment,” he said. “That's one of the reasons we go to the stadium just to have that type of feel.”
“You get a chance to kind of see where some guys are, and then there's also some guys that we really know where they are, and so you want to challenge some other guys to see they've taken that next step that we need.”
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Dabo Swinneys First Clemson Scrimmage Brought One Early Concern
Clemsons first fall camp scrimmage was supposed to offer the usual August read on where the Tigers stand, and in some ways it did, with Dabo Swinney coming away able to point to both encouraging moments and places that still need work. He also gave updates on a few injured players, keeping the early part of camp in the usual mix of optimism and caution as the staff starts sorting out depth and emerging roles.
The bigger concern, though, arrived with the news that true freshman defensive back Polo Anderson was lost to a knee injury in Fridays practice, a setback that changes the outlook for a young player trying to carve out a place in the secondary. For a team still trying to settle in after its first scrimmage, the injury adds another layer to a camp that is already about finding answers, and it leaves Clemson with one less option as the competition tightens over the next few weeks. [Read more 🡒]
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Dabo Swinney is heading back to a place that has figured into his football life for a long time, and this time hes arriving as Clemsons coach for a season opener against LSU at Tiger Stadium. Before he was on the Tigers sideline in orange, Swinney was part of Alabamas run in Baton Rouge, a stretch he remembers as one of the more successful visits that program made to a stadium that has a way of testing everyone who walks into it.
Swinney has talked about those trips as part of the backdrop for this return, including a comeback he still clearly carries with him from his playing and coaching days. Alabamas streak at LSU eventually ended in 2000, but the setting and the history are still part of what makes this opener feel bigger than a normal nonconference game, especially for a Clemson program trying to make a statement in one of the sports loudest environments. [Read more 🡒]
Dabo Thinks Clemson Is Ready For Its Toughest Early Test
Clemsons trip to LSU is shaping up as the kind of early-season measuring stick that can tell a lot about a team before conference play even settles in. Dabo Swinney said the Tigers have spent the offseason with this sort of challenge in mind, pointing to summer workouts and fall camp as part of the preparation for a game that figures to be played in a hot, loud and demanding environment.
Swinneys confidence is rooted less in the matchup itself than in what Clemson has already put itself through to get ready for it. The setting will be difficult and the atmosphere should be intense, but he believes the Tigers are built to handle it and compete, which is exactly the kind of conviction a team wants going into one of its toughest early tests. [Read more 🡒]