By Hale McGranahan.
Wednesday was a B.J. Goodson kind of day.
The redshirt junior middle linebacker from Lamar fancies himself physical, downhill kind of player, so the first practice in full pads is a day that he always looks forward to.
“Before, it’s more of a mental deal,” Goodson said. “Now, we can actually put it into play, because we’re full gear, we’re full go.
“(You) kind of see where the team is headed and we’re looking really, really good.”
But there was at least one casualty during Wednesday’s practice. Starting left tackle Isaiah Battle banged up his left leg during the Paw Drill, though Dabo Swinney downplayed the injury during post-practice interviews.
“He was nursing it a little bit out there today, but he’s OK,” Swinney said. “Sometimes, those things are positive, because you can see how certain guys respond. We had a chance to really tax the OL today and challenge a few guys. I really kind of moved them around myself today, so we did some good things.”
Wednesday’s practice kicked off with the Paw Drill, Clemson’s version of the Oklahoma Drill.
“I feel like, even in the game, when I get involved in contact early, that just sets my whole tempo for the rest of the practice,” said starting safety Robert Smith. “I’d rather be outside in the grass before being in the (indoor facility).”
Even though he and the rest of the quarterbacks go untouched, Cole Stoudt was glad to see everyone else knocking heads.
“It’s a good thing getting out there in full pads,” he said. “The game starts speeding up, guys start going a little bit harder, something that allows to go get in (the film room) and look at the mistakes that we’ve made. It’s good seeing everybody going full speed. I thought today was pretty damn good.”
The Tigers will practice in full pads on Thursday and Friday before scrimmaging inside the stadium on Saturday.
“It’s going to be a tough, tough three or four days coming up for these guys,” Swinney said.” I thought we set the tempo of the practice really, really good. I thought both groups played really, really hard in one of our more competitive drills, to start our practice.”