CLEMSON — If you were looking for an offensive explosion at Clemson’s Orange & White Spring Game Saturday, you came to the wrong game.

With the team being split up so the fans can enjoy a more traditional game, offense usually takes a back seat to the defense. That was the case at Memorial Stadium, as the Orange and White teams combined for just 510 total yards, including 103 rushing yards.

It also did not help that several players were either held out or are recovering from injury, such as running back Phil Mafah, tight end Jake Briningstool and wide receiver Tyler Brown.

Coming out of the spring, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney says the offense is still a work in progress. He said they were incomplete.

“We are more confident. That is a word I will say. We are more confident than we were this time last year, but we are still incomplete,” he said after the Orange’s 27-12 victory over the White. “I thought we threw and caught pretty well today for the most part. But no Cole Turner. We did not have Tyler Brown out there. We did not have [Troy] Stellato. We got TJ Moore coming this summer. We did not have Noble Johnson out there, so those are guys (we were missing).”

Without all of those weapons, Clemson’s No. 1 and No. 2 quarterbacks looked average at best in the spring game.

Starter Cade Klubnik completed just 13 of 26 passes for 158 yards and was intercepted once. Backup Christopher Vizzina was not any better.

Vizzina was intercepted twice and completed just 14 of 25 passes for 108 yards. It also did not help Vizzina that running back Keith Adams, Jr. left the game early due to an injury.

Third string quarterback Trent Pearman led the White team with 56 rushing yards on four carries. No one else had more than 11 yards. Jarvis Green led the Orange team with 29 yards on six carries.

“When we become a complete group, we have a chance to be really good and we should,” Swinney said. “We have a lot of guys back (on offense). We lost [Will] Putnam and [Will] Shipley, so most everyone is back on this offense.

“This is year two in this system, so we have a chance to be much more confident as a group. And our quarterback taking another step, that is going to be a big part of it.”

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