By Will Vandervort

CLEMSON — Wednesday’s practice behind the Jervey Athletic Center in Clemson was cold and windy. It was the kind of evening that would have been nice for Clemson’s players and coaches to have a place to go indoors and practice. Though, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney wasn’t certain he would have gone indoors had Clemson’s indoor practice facility was available to him, it’s going to be a nice problem to have when he has that option.

That option appears to be coming sooner rather than later. Swinney says the ninth-ranked Tigers could be able to use the new facility as early as Nov. 19 – the Monday before the South Carolina game.

The indoor facility, which broke ground in the spring, is nearing completion. The construction crew, according to Swinney, has worked diligently to get the structure completed. On Wednesday, they were grading the ground inside and the turf field is expected to come in and be laid sometime next week.

“It’s coming along,” Swinney said. “I’m excited about it. They’ve told us they think we’re going to be in there the week of the South Carolina game, maybe just a hair earlier. That’s really exciting.”

The exciting part is, the Tigers (7-1, 4-1 ACC) will finally be playing on a smooth surface for the first time in a few months. Swinney says the two practice fields they are using right now are getting worn out because of the extreme usage. In years past, Clemson used the field turf, where the indoor facility is being built on, exclusively for practices on Monday and Thursday and then rotated with the other two—grass fields—to prevent wearing them down.

“Our fields our completely torn up,” Swinney said. “They are in terrible shape right now, because we’ve been limited to two fields. It’s really hard to manage.”

Earlier this week TheClemsonInsider.com took some shots of the progress on the new facility.

Check out the TCI Indoor Practice Facility Gallery!