There is still no timetable on when or if Clemson wide receiver Mike Williams will return from a fracture suffered in his neck in the Tigers’ season-opening win against Wofford.
Williams had a checkup with the doctors last week, and Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said the report from that checkup was a good one.
“It is just something they do periodically. He is doing well,” Swinney said following Wednesday’s practice. “Everything is really perfect the way the alignment or the break was or whatever, so it really, really went well.”
Williams, a preseason All-ACC candidate, was injured in the first quarter of the Wofford game after he hauled in a four-yard touchdown pass from Deshaun Watson. As he was coming down with the football, Williams ran into the protective padding on the gold post.
He was carted off the field on a stretcher and later it was discovered he had a small fracture in his neck. Since the injury, Swinney and Clemson have reported the star wideout could be out from six weeks to the whole season.
“We do not have a timetable. I have no idea if he will play this year or not,” Swinney said. “In his mind he is playing, but that is all up to the doctors and the good Lord. We have no idea. We certainly do not want him anywhere near a football field unless he is hundred percent healed. So I have no idea.”
Swinney said there were no new injuries to report following practice.
Clemson Life Program. Swinney hosted the kids from the Clemson Life Program at football practice on Wednesday, and afterwards he brought them over to Memorial Stadium on a bus like the football team uses on game days, where they ran down the Hill.
He also took individual pictures with each child.
“This is a great day. All you have to do is look at the joy on their faces,” Swinney said. “It is just an awesome experience to be a part of.”
The Clemson LIFE Program offers a 2-year Basic Program that incorporates functional academics, independent living, employment, social/leisure skills, and health/wellness skills in a public university setting with the goal of producing self-sufficient young adults.
Additionally, the Clemson LIFE Program offers a 2-year Advanced Program for students that have demonstrated the ability to safely live independently, sustain employment, and socially integrate during the Basic Program. The Advanced Program progresses with an emphasis on workplace experience, community integration, and independent living with transitionally reduced supports. Students who successfully complete the Basic or Advanced program will receive a corresponding certificate of postsecondary education.
“The Clemson Life Program is amazing. It is absolutely amazing,” Swinney said.
“They are all just amazing and the program is amazing and how it is run. It is something the foundation supports and we are just really blessed and honored at what they do. The Clemson Life Program stands for learning is for everyone,” he continued. “These young people live life the way we should all live life. They really do. It is just a pleasure and joy to be around them. To see them interact around practice and have fun, to see the joy to get autographs, and I wish you could have been on that bus when they hopped on that bus with a police escort and came around here. It was game time! It was so much fun to be a part of.”
We are talking about practice. Swinney said the Tigers will practice on Thursday and then the players and the staff will get a little break this weekend.
“That will be good for everybody,” he said.
Swinney said everybody has to check back in on Sunday night. The players are usually off every Sunday, but they worked this past Sunday because they were getting Friday off.
“The players will come back in here on Monday and we will have a normal game-prep week getting ready for Notre Dame,” Swinney said.
Tenth-ranked Clemson will host No. 6 Notre Dame at 8 p.m. on Oct. 3.