Earlier this spring, Dabo Swinney told members of the media he had a lot of potty training to do with the defensive line before the Tigers kick off the 2019 season against Georgia Tech in August.

Clemson held its first practice in 10 days on Monday after taking an extended rest period in the middle of spring camp to recover and enjoy spring break.

Typically, Swinney runs the seven-on-seven drills for the offense, but on Monday he gave his whistle to quarterbacks coach Brand Streeter as he went to investigate the defensive line’s progress.

Lack of experience is noticeable on a defensive line that is rebuilding from the Power Ranger era of Christian Wilkins, Dexter Lawrence, Clelin Ferrell and Austin Bryant and is still looking for younger guys to stand up and fill those rolls.

“You can obviously tell a difference between those who have played and the ones who have not,” Swinney said. “Logan Rudolph, Xavier Thomas, Justin Foster and even K.J. Henry who played a little bit, it shows,” he said.

While the coaches are still on the search for more consistent play from the defensive line they are beginning to see the fruits of improvement in the young group.

“The new guys are still trying to figure things out, but I love the group and they’re improving and their want to is where it needs to be,” Swinney said.

Clemson’s head coach has seen a lot of progress over the course of spring practice but knows that his young players have a long way to go despite the drive and motivation of the young defensive lineman.

“We are not a very detailed or fundamentally sound group right now but the effort, want to and desire are already there,” Swinney said. “We aren’t having to pull teeth to get them to practice the way they need to, to improve.”

Clemson has five practices to get things cleaned up, but Swinney feels like they have taken tremendous steps to gain momentum for the rest of the off-season on the defensive line.

The annual Orange & White Spring Game is on April 6 at Memorial Stadium in Clemson.