Just like every other first day of football practice in Clemson, Tuesday was a battle of extremes.
Many eyes were watching, but there was nothing to see.
Recognizing this dichotomy goes against everything we long to believe in our hearts this time of year. We want football, and we want it now. We don’t want to wait for news to happen. We need it, and we’ll create it if we have to—just to say it happened.
There was actually more we could watch on Tuesday, as Dabo Swinney pulled the ol’ August surprise out of his hat and decided to open up practice to reporters for the first week of camp. This sounds like an all-access pass, and it is, but only to what Swinney wants us to access.
I don’t blame him for any aspect of his decision. In fact, I applaud his good faith gesture. But in the grand scheme of things, very little has changed for us.
Even with unfettered access to drill work on Tuesday, there wasn’t much going on that broke new ground. It was day one. The objective was for everybody to get his feet wet.
Mostly, Tuesday’s opening practice served to confirm what we already knew. The freshmen we thought would look good looked good. Any two-quarterback system controversy should end immediately because there’s absolutely zero comparison between Deshaun Watson and anyone else in the running. Never ever take him off the field.
That list includes every name you know except Tucker Israel, whose broken foot will cause him to miss basically all of camp and may have him headed for a redshirt.
The fastest and quickest players looked fast and quick. The strongest and toughest players looked strong. That’s a simple way to look at it—maybe too simple—but it’s the truth.
Even new information has to be taken with a grain of salt. At one point, Ray-Ray McCloud was the second-team slot receiver, while Deon Cain was on the third team. Is McCloud really more likely to play more snaps than Cain right now? Travis Blanks took the initial first-team reps at nickel/SAM. Is he in position to unseat Korrin Wiggins there?
These are questions that can’t possibly be answered today, or tomorrow, or the next day. However, they are also questions that require monitoring as practice continues. The coaches and players will know exactly what to draw from each day, but as usual, we won’t.
Even if they let us watch the whole thing.
God Bless!
WQ