Clemson heads to the West Coast on Friday night with a quarterback situation that still isn’t fully settled, even after a win over North Carolina gave the Tigers some breathing room.
Head coach Dabo Swinney said Tuesday that Christopher Vizzina, who entered the season as Clemson’s starter, is continuing to improve and is listed as probable to be available against Cal. The Tigers will keep monitoring him right up to game time.
“He’s a tough kid, and CV’s better,” Swinney said on Tuesday. “He’s made a lot of progress each day, took some reps yesterday. So, I mean, he’s getting better each day, and the biggest thing I said, it’s short-term.”
If Vizzina can’t go, true freshman Tait Reynolds will again be the guy. He already handled the job well enough to help Clemson finish the North Carolina game with a 22-3 second-half run, and last weekend he threw for 215 yards and a touchdown with an interception.
Still, this will be a much tougher ask. It’ll be Reynolds’ second college start, and he’ll have to do it on the road against a Cal team that has already opened ACC play with a win of its own at Syracuse.
Swinney made it clear that the growing pains are part of the deal with a freshman quarterback.
“We’re going to have to grow with him,” he said. “I mean, there’s going to be some moments where you just take a deep breath, but it’s a lot. It’s a lot, but he is super talented and he can do some things that are unique and I’m excited about his future.”
If Reynolds needs a backup, graduate senior Trent Pearman is next in line. Pearman has seen limited action in his Clemson career, with 43 passing yards and an interception, but Swinney trusts what he brings.
“We’ve got two good players there; I feel really confident with Trent,” he said. “I feel really confident with him as far as just, he doesn’t have the arm talent as those guys, but he just knows it, he sees it, he understands it. He’s going to be on-time, and he can play.”
Brock Bradley, another true freshman, has also seen his reps increase over the last two weeks while Vizzina has been out, giving Clemson another option if needed.
For now, though, the spotlight stays on Reynolds. Swinney said the Tigers have already seen enough to understand both the upside and the learning curve.
“You play a couple games, and then there were just some things that Tait did, especially with the extended play in the Georgia Southern game of like, ‘Okay, there were mistakes, but there were also some things that you were really excited about,’” Swinney said, “and you could see the team kind of the same way.”
Kickoff is set for 10:30 p.m. EST on ESPN.
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