By Will Vandervort.
If he had to pencil down one thing he wanted to see in Saturday’s scrimmage at Memorial Stadium, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney wants to see how his offensive line will respond.
How will they respond if they don’t have left tackle Isaiah Battle? How will they respond to mixing and matching and moving to different spots? How will they respond going against what is considered the best defensive line in the country?
“We are going to have some different lineups and put some guys in different spots and challenge them a little bit,” Swinney said. “I’m anxious to see how that all comes together.”
Swinney isn’t sure if Battle will be ready to go for Saturday’s scrimmage. The 6-foot-7, 290-pound junior spent Thursday and Friday nursing his left ankle which he sprained early in practice on Wednesday. The last two days, the Tigers have gone with Kalon Davis at first-team left tackle and Eric Mac Lain at second-team.
“We have had a couple of injury bugs here and there and he just wanted to put us in a couple of adverse situations,” Mac Lain said following practice on Friday. “He wanted to see how we would respond to all that stuff and I think we have all done very well.”
The good news for Clemson is that Swinney believes he has 10 guys on the offensive line that he feels the team can win with. Saturday’s scrimmage will be about getting those 10 guys in the right position so they can start working on a top five.
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“I have challenged them up front a little bit, but I’m really anxious to put it all together,” the Clemson coach said.
First day of two-a-days. Clemson will conclude its second practice of the day in Memorial Stadium as Swinney and his coaching staff takes his team through a walkthrough on what they can expect in Saturday’s two-hour scrimmage.
Tonight, the Tigers will focus on tempo, correcting the mistakes they have made the last couple of days and re-teaching a few things they have already learned.
A tough couple of days. Swinney said Thursday was a tough day and a tough night for his team as they had little time to recover with a quick turnaround Friday morning which included a real physical practice.
“Some of them have kind of hit the wall a little bit, but most of the guys, in my mind that I’m really counting on, they responded well with the way we practiced today,” Swinney said. “We still have a long way to go and a lot of work to do.”
Injury news. Swinney says Battle is looking better and if they were playing Georgia on Saturday he would play.
“We will see how he is in the morning and see if Danny (Poole) wants to cut him loose or not, but he looked a lot better today,” the head coach said.
Tight end Seckinger looked better today as well. The junior is hopeful he might be able to get on the field in maybe another week or so.
There were a couple of other guys dinged up, too. Reserve defensive end Shaq Lawson was limited in practice with a shoulder injury, while tight end Sam Cooper is also nursing a shoulder injury, but his involves a muscle. Both could be back for Saturday’s stadium scrimmage.
Wide receiver Adam Humphries tweaked his hamstring on Thursday and he could miss the scrimmage.
“Those are just things you deal with when you are going through camp. But for the most part we are in pretty good shape,” Swinney said.
Nothing special, yet. Swinney says he will be watching his special teams units extremely close in Saturday’s scrimmage.
“I’m always thinking about the roster, the travel squad and who we need to be repping on those teams,” he said. “Tomorrow and Wednesday will be big days for these guys.”
Especially for kicker Ammon Lakip, who Swinney plans to put in a lot of pressure situations to see how he responds in a stadium atmosphere.
Swinney will also have his eyes on the punt and kickoff return teams, which have been an issue for the Tigers the last couple of years.
Proud day to be a Tiger. Friday was also a day of pride for Swinney, as four of his current players and two of his former players earned degrees at graduation ceremonies in Littlejohn Coliseum. Active players Vic Beasley, Martin Jenkins, Taylor Watson and Reid Webster all received undergraduate degrees. Former players Dwayne Allen and Darrell Brevard also graduated.
“It is always a great day when your players graduate,” Swinney said. “It never gets old seeing them in their cap and gown. It was a landmark day in that we had two consensus All-Americans (Allen, Beasley) graduate on the same day.”
Allen, a starting tight end for the Indianapolis Colts, played an exhibition game against the Jets in East Rutherford, N.J. on Thursday night. He had a 3:30 a.m. wakeup call and a 5:00 a.m. flight to Greenville so he could make the ceremony.
“I am especially proud of Dwayne,” Swinney said. “He made great progress in all areas since he first came here. It is not easy to finish up when you are playing in the NFL.”