Clemson completed its first full scrimmage of fall camp on Saturday, and it showed the Tigers still have a lot to work on before their Sept. 5 kickoff against Wofford.
Here is what he heard after Day 11 of fall camp:
“We’ve got a long way to go. The good news is that we have three weeks before we really play and the scoreboard really counts,” head coach Dabo Swinney said.
Offensively, Swinney and co-offensive coordinator Tony Elliot saw glimpses of greatness, but they also some things that need improvement.
“Deshaun (Watson), I thought, was excellent all day,” Swinney said.
“I thought it was good to see Charone (Peake) finish some plays and show his speed today.”
“A big thing that stands out is that we turned the ball over and we didn’t play as fast as we have been doing all camp,” Elliot said.
The depth on defense keeps decreasing after Swinney announced linebacker Korie Rogers decided to stop playing football.
“This was a kid that was going to play this year and play a lot as a redshirt freshman. He had a chance to be a special player, all the tools in the world. He just said that he doesn’t want to play football anymore,” Swinney said. “He just wants to go to school and get a job.
“This kid has got a gift to play the game, but you’ve got to want to do it.”
Defensive coordinator Brent Venables says that the depth situation is “an emergency,” but he also had some good things to say about the remaining linebackers.
“We don’t have many guys, but I was really proud of the guys that did play and compete,” he said.
Venables specifically mentioned he was pleased with B.J. Goodson, Dorian O’Daniel, and Travis Blanks. Swinney likes what he sees out of Jalen Williams and Kendall Joseph.
“Jalen Williams has had a nice camp, and is slowly but surely getting where he needs to be. Kendall Joseph, I think is ready to play for us,” Swinney said. “He’ll be a guy that’ll be ready to go.”
Venables may be concerned about his depth at linebacker, but he his very happy with his defensive ends.
“Shaq (Lawson) and Kevin Dodd are really consistent and know what to do. They can beat guys one on one,” he said.
Dodd knows the defense made some mistakes in their first full scrimmage, but he is confident in their ability.
“I feel like we had a pretty good scrimmage. There are some things we need to clean up,” Dodd said. ”We started off a little slow, but we got to a pace that we wanted to be at towards the end.”
Dodd also has faith in the newest members of the defense from what he has seen from them so far in camp.
“I feel like they made a big jump versus when they first got here this summer,” he said.