By Will Vandervort.

By Will Vandervort

There is always that chance Clemson might not have quarterback Tajh Boyd for a play or two during the course of a 12-game season.

The Tigers have run into that problem briefly the last two years. After injuring his thigh, Boyd missed most of the second half in Clemson’s victory over Boston College in 2011, and then last season, Auburn kept finding different ways to dislodge his helmet from his head, forcing him to sit out several plays per the new helmet rule that was instituted prior to the 2012 season.

To make sure they are ready for any situation that might be thrown at them this fall, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney and offensive coordinator Chad Morris decided to limit Boyd’s work in Monday’s stadium scrimmage and instead had backup quarterbacks Cole Stoudt and Chad Kelly do most of the work.

“It gives you good experience in case something happens and you have to go in for a play,” Stoudt said afterwards. “If Tajh’s helmet comes off or something bad happens and you have to go in, it is good experience to a get flow with the ones to make sure you are ready to go in.

“It’s good preparation.”

Boyd only took four snaps Monday, completing 1-of-2 passes for 27 yards. Stoudt finished the day 10-of-18 for 81 yards, a touchdown and an interception, while Kelly was 7-of-15 for 78 yards, including a 49-yard scoring pass to wide receiver Charone Peake on a screen.

Peake’s touchdown was the only true scoring play of the scrimmage for the offense on a day that was owned by the defense. The other touchdowns came in situational settings, like in short yardage or red zone areas.

Though they had an opportunity to show what they could do with the first-team offense, it did not appear as if Stoudt or Kelly made a good impression on their head coach.

“They were just okay,” Swinney said. “I really did not see the leadership on offense that you would like to see… They kind of looked like they were going through the emotions to me.”

In all fairness to Stoudt and Kelly, it’s hard to make plays when the defense was living in the backfield all afternoon. The Tigers’ defense recorded 14 sacks in the scrimmage, though keep in mind quarterbacks are ruled down in scrimmages by being touched. Regardless though, there were a lot of orange shirts in the backfield.

“They brought it today,” Stoudt said. “They practiced hard, which is really good. We are going to have some good games coming up and we may be put in a situation where we need to battle back. The defense did really good today and made us battle a little bit so it was good.”

Stoudt says he is still learning every day, which he says is his goal. What he learned on Monday was that he still has work to do. His interception, which cornerback Garry Peters picked off, was due to an impulse move. He also had a couple of other passes he tried to force into coverage.

“There is some stuff I have to correct,” he said. “I made a few impulse decisions which I will have to fix. I still need to get in the game room. There is still stuff I think I need to correct, and there are things I did well, but maybe the game film will say something different.

“I will have to get back in tomorrow and look over the film and correct what I did wrong.”