Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott met with the media via Zoom on Monday ahead of the Tigers’ season opener at Wake Forest on Saturday and updated the competitions at backup quarterback and running back behind Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne, respectively.

Starting with the running backs, Elliott says junior Lyn-J Dixon would be the second-string back behind Etienne, though Elliott noted that Dixon banged up his knee a couple of weeks ago and said how he responds on it in practice this week will determine whether or not he is able to play Saturday night in Winston-Salem.

Because of injuries like that, and situations that may arise with COVID-19, Elliott knows he must make sure all of his other backup running backs are prepared to play — including senior Darien Rencher, sophomores Michel Dukes and Chez Mellusi, and freshmen Demarkcus Bowman and Kobe Pace.

“This is a different world. You’ve got to have them all ready to play,” Elliott said. “So, obviously, we know Travis and who he is. He was able to reassert himself as the first one to run out there, and obviously you do have a little bit of a pecking order. But in my mind, every last one of them in that room is a backup, just because of the environment that we’re in with the testing protocol. You may not know who’s available every single week because that’s going to be determined as you go throughout the course of the week with the testing protocol. But Lyn-J would be the second guy, but again, I’ve got to have Rencher ready to go, I’ve got to have both those freshmen and obviously got to have Mikey Dukes as well. And then as soon as Chez is back with us, he’ll be ready.

“So, it’s probably as we left it. But truthfully, if you want an honest answer, I’ve got to have all those guys ready to be the backup, and they’re actually one play away from being the starter just because of the different environment that we’re in.”

As for the battle at backup quarterback between redshirt freshman Taisun Phommachanh and true freshman D.J. Uiagalelei, Elliott said the competition has remained tight, and head coach Dabo Swinney and quarterbacks coach Brandon Streeter are still discussing which of those signal-callers will serve as the No. 2 behind Lawrence to start the season.

“First of all, I love all three of those guys,” Elliott said. “The good thing is we’re in a situation, I know which one’s going to run out there first. But those other two guys have had a good camp. They’re continuing to battle. I know that Coach Streeter and Coach Swinney are having some serious conversations about which guy to run out there next.

“But for me, I love all three of them, and it doesn’t matter to me which one runs out there second. Both of those guys would be deserving, but at the end of the day, Coach Streeter is still working through the competition, and I’ll know probably when you guys know which one’s running out there next.”

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