Unlike last year, when the majority of the questions he fielded were about the quarterback situation involving Deshaun Watson and Cole Stoudt, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney has been given a reprieve this year. Or was he?
In the last two days, including Wednesday’s teleconference with the media that cover the ACC, Swinney has been asked about the No. 2 quarterback position behind Watson, how he views two-quarterback systems and those that don’t name a starting quarterback until just days before kickoff.
“I’m not one of these guys that buy into that, ‘If you don’t name the quarterback, then you do not have one.’ I have never bought into that,” Swinney said. “Sometimes that is the case because you have some guys and neither one was good enough.
“If we had Deshaun Watson and Tajh Boyd here right now, and they are battling for the starting job, I think both of those guys are pretty good. You would realize pretty quick, ‘Hey we have us a tough decision here, but it is a good decision.’”
Last year was definitely a difficult dilemma for Swinney and then offensive coordinator Chad Morris when Watson made a push on then starter Cole Stoudt for the starting job in fall camp. After heading into camp far behind Stoudt, Watson put the coaches in a difficult situation when he evened things up before the Georgia game.
Stoudt won the job initially, primarily because Swinney went with the more experienced player, but by Week 3 against Florida State, Watson had come in and took it from the senior.
“Sometimes it is hard as coaches, especially in college football, when you don’t have any preseason games. You can only do so much in practice,” Swinney said. “You go into the season and probably have another level of evaluation. Usually one of those guys will separate a little bit, but it doesn’t mean the other guy does not deserve to play and all of that kind of stuff.”
As for the backup quarterback race behind Watson, Swinney says it isn’t much of a race right now. The Tigers’ head coach says Nick Schuessler is the No. 2 guy, though freshman Kelly Bryant made some big strides in camp and is in a situation where he can play if Clemson needs him to.
“It is so funny. Every year we have a quarterback controversy,” Swinney said smiling. “Every year, it is either the starter or the backup, and now it is, ‘Alright, who is the No. 2 guy?’ Nobody wants to give Nick any credit, but Nick Schuessler can play. I think he has really earned the respect of his team. This past spring was big for him… He is clearly our No. 2 and we are excited about him.”
But the summer was big for Kelly, who Swinney says will play this season.
“Kelly Bryant, I can’t brag on him enough,” he said. “From where he was in the spring, to where he is now at the end of camp, he is in a different hemisphere. He has now made himself relevant as far as, ‘Okay, we can win with this guy.’ There is no way we could have won with him this spring, but we did not have to win with him this spring so you give him so much credit for the amount of work he put in this summer.”
As opposed to last year, when the Tigers had only two quarterbacks prepared to play, Swinney likes the fact he will head into Saturday’s 12:30 p.m. kickoff against Wofford with three quarterbacks ready to go. He says it is important to develop depth at the quarterback position, something they did not have in 2014.
“If you are at Ohio State right now and you are looking at the guys they have got, does that mean they do not have a quarterback? No. There is nothing wrong with having multiple good players,” Swinney said. “Nobody ever makes a big deal out of it when you have multiple good receivers or multiple good running backs. That’s like, ‘Oh, that is great!’ But it is a bad thing when they have multiple really talented quarterbacks. I have never bought into that. I think that is an old-school, bad way of thinking in my opinion.
“It is certainly great when you have a clear cut thing and it is not part of the conversation. It isn’t something you are getting asked about all the time. That’s just not always the case.”