By Will Vandervort.

With what happened at Ohio State last season in regards to three high-level quarterbacks leading the Buckeyes to the national championship, a lot of coaches are getting questioned about their second and third string quarterbacks this spring.

In other words, a lot of people want to know if there are four- and five-star guys ready to go should the starting quarterback go down with an injury.

Co-offensive coordinator Tony Elliott and head coach Dabo Swinney cannot seem to escape that question at Clemson, where “Who is the backup going to be?” is a big question this spring, especially considering starter Deshaun Watson is standing on the sideline waiting for his injured left knee to heal after off-season knee surgery three months ago.

Nick Schuessler, a former gray shirt, who transferred from Mississippi State, seems to be the leader in the clubhouse right now. The redshirt junior completed 11 of 18 passes for 100 yards and two touchdowns in Wednesday’s scrimmage in Death Valley.

Though he has been steady, many don’t believe Schuessler will be the guy to backup Watson when he returns in the fall. Though they enrolled in January, four-star prospects Kelly Bryant and Tucker Israel are the fans’ and media’s favorite to grab ahold of the No.2 position, the closest thing to Ohio State in the ACC.

“They understand at that position that only one guy runs out there, but you are a play away from having to be the starter,” Elliott said. “We have not approached them from the mindset on what Ohio State did. It is still too early to tell. These guys should be going to the prom, hanging out with their buddies, but here they are going through spring ball.

“They’re in Death Valley during a live scrimmage. They have Shaq Lawson coming off the edge. They are trying to call protections and ID fronts and do all of that stuff. It is still too early to try and put that kind of pressure on them. But they understand, too, that they have to prepare and they have to take advantage of the opportunity because they are only one play away.”

Swinney said both of his freshmen quarterbacks did a nice job and made some good throws in the Tigers’ 100-play scrimmage on Wednesday. But, like Elliott, he too believes it’s too early to know which guy is going to this or do that, especially considering they just went through their first scrimmage in Death Valley.

“You call the plays a little bit differently because you are trying to find out some things,” Clemson’s head coach said. “You are not necessarily trying to win a scrimmage or win a game. You are trying to evaluate so maybe you do things a little bit differently than just trying to win the play for example.

“You want to see how this guy is going to react on a sprint-out on third-and-two. Does he understand, does he come to run, just the little things like putting them in red-zone situations and see how they respond from a protection standpoint and managing the game?”

Elliott says it was obvious from the sidelines the speed of the game was giving the freshmen a few issues here and there.

“It was the first time for them in the Valley with everyone off the field,” he said. “Everything started moving fast and for the most part they did a pretty good job. There are still a lot of things that we are asking them to do. We are continuing to add a couple of things at a good pace, but at the end of the day it was their first opportunity and once we get a chance to look at the film we will be ready to evaluate them.

“Nick did some good things, but we also had some areas where he could have managed the offense a little bit better so it was a learning opportunity for him as well.”

What the Clemson coaches are trying to do a lot this spring is get their young quarterbacks out of their comfort zone and force them to work on other aspects of their game that they are not too good at doing.

For Israel, it is having the confidence to run the football when he needs to. For Bryant, trusting his arm and making the throws he needs to make.

“Tucker he has been in a system where he has been able to throw the ball, but was not asked to make as many plays with his legs. That’s the area where he is capable, but he just has to be able to develop that confidence and get more practice of the reads and what we are asking him to do from a read perspective,” Elliott said. “Again, he just has to continue to have that confidence to be able to make throws and drive that ball in there. A lot of that is managing a lot of things at the quarterback position. For this offense to go fast, everybody has to absorb a lot of reasonability. It is not like an NFL system where you tell everybody what to do on every single play. They have a lot of things they have to remember and have to do.

“Kelly, athletically, can make plays with his legs, but he is continuing to develop as a passer. The one weakness one has, the other has that strength, but that is why we are pushing them to continue to build their strengths, but build upon those weaknesses, too.”

In other words, not every freshman quarterback is like Deshaun Watson.