Clemson finished its second practice in full pads Thursday morning, before moving to Memorial Stadium for an evening walk-through.

The team has battled high temperatures and heat index’s in its first few days of fall camp.

Despite the heat head coach Dabo Swinney is pleased with the attitude on his team as they prepare to defend their 2018 national championship title.

“We are a long way away from game ready but one thing we have been consistent on is we have had really good energy,” Swinney told the media following day six of fall camp.

“Normally by now you have a ‘Negative Nelly’ or ‘Debbie Downer’ but we have very positive energy,” he said. “Our guys are about their business, really working and I’m really encouraged by the team.”

Here is more of what Swinney had to tell the media Thursday including a variety of injury updates and observations from the first couple days of full contact drills ahead of the team’s first scrimmage.

Team in good shape health-wise.

“We are doing good, I think we are in really good shape. We did a lot of running this summer, probably more than we have done before. I really feel good about how they are holding up, it’s been really hot and the heat index has been way up there,” Swinney said.

“These guys have really pushed through and had great competitive practices with a lot of good-on-good. When you get into a week of banging you start to get a few knicks.”

Derion Kendrick injury update.

“He was but has been out the past couple of days because he tweaked his hamstring a little bit. He’s been on ice the past few days and we want him back,” Swinney said. “He is in a good place mentally and we know how he is physically. Whenever we get him back, he will be back.”

Tee Higgins injury update.

“He just got a little banged up. He practiced all day but sometimes guys get banged up, so we put them in green which means do everything but don’t hit him,” Swinney said. “He was in green today, but he still got to do everything. When we put a wide receiver or defensive back in green they can do everything, we just don’t hit them.”

Tyler Venables & Nyles Pinckney injury updates.

Swinney told the media Tyler Venables tweaked his hamstring early in camp and that Nyles Pinckney is banged up but has off day tomorrow as a reward for graduation and should be back in full swing shortly.

Flashiness doesn’t matter.

“I don’t care how flashy we are or how cute we look coming off the bus. It doesn’t matter how fast we are, how good Trevor’s hair looks that day, if you don’t have a good offensive line you are in trouble,” Swinney said.

“The offensive line sets the tone, the closer you are to the ball the more valuable you are to the team. I played and coached skill players my whole life but it all works together, we can’t get our jobs done without those guys up front,” he said.

Freshman Andrew Booth poised to be a special player.

“He is all over the place like a deer running around out there but he has a great body, he’s tough and he is physical,” Swinney said. “He is a natural you can tell he’s being doing it for a while and has confidence in what he does.”

“It is just a matter of time before he really gets the intricacies of our defense down,” he said. “I’m really pleased with Andrew, he is going to be a special player.”