For the second consecutive game, backup Chris Vizzina saw plenty of action for Clemson.

With the Tigers winning in blowout fashion over Boston College, Vizzina was able to log 18 snaps against the Eagles, taking over late in the third quarter when Cade Klubnik left with an ankle sprain and finishing the game. This comes one week after logging 34 in the win over North Carolina. In those two games, he’s gone 7-of-14 passing for 37 yards with one interception.

It’s the kind of live action Clemson just wasn’t able to get him a season ago, and Dabo Swinney believes the redshirt sophomore has done a pretty good job of staying ready.

“We gave him a ton of work this spring and in fall camp with ones, and he really did a nice job. He performed very well in all those opportunities,” Swinney said during his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “Some when he knew he was going in and others when he didn’t know he was going in.”

Vizzina was considered by many to be a Top 100 talent coming out of high school and was a consensus four-star prospect. He was one of the Top 10 quarterbacks in the 2023 recruiting class.

Vizzina is also one of those rare commodities in college football these days. Not too many quarterbacks, especially ones ranked as high as he was coming out of high school, are willing to sit and learn for three seasons. However, that is what Vizzina has done.

With Klubnik in his last season, many have viewed Vizzina as the heir apparent, and getting him some opportunities in game situations will only help prepare him for whatever lies ahead.

“As a redshirt freshman last year, he didn’t get a lot of opportunities to play,” Swinney added. “So, it has been good that he has had some real game time in back-to-back games to just really get a feel for everything. Because that is just going to help him get better and better from a game speed, game time, game management and all that stuff as he gets some experience.”

Photo by Eric Canha-Imagn Images