CLEMSON — When the average Clemson fan thinks about Tajh Boyd, they think about how he led the Tigers to their first ACC Championship in 20 years. They think about his nearly 12,000 passing yards 107 touchdown passes. They think about his ACC Player of the Year honor.

What they do not think about, and understandably so, was his early struggles in Chad Morris’ offense. The spring after Morris came to Clemson in 2011, Boyd struggled in practice.

So much so, some wondered if he was going to be the Tigers’ starting quarterback.

Boyd was much better in fall camp, and ultimately won the job over a highly touted freshman named Cole Stoudt, but he still struggled a bit. In the season opener that year, he threw an early interception in the first half, as Clemson trailed Troy at halftime.

The Tigers ultimately took care of business against Troy, but another slow start the next week against Wofford led to boos from the 80,000 plus in attendance, as Clemson went into the halftime break tied with the Terriers.

Again, Clemson won the game and then went on the beat defending national champion Auburn the next week followed by two more consecutive ranked wins with victories over Florida State and Virginia Tech.

Clemson was on it way, and the rest is history.

What can we expect out of the Clemson offense this time around as Morris leads the charge? What can we expect out of the quarterback situation, which we know is a two-man race between Christopher Vizzina and freshman standout Tait Reynolds?

Coming out of the spring, it did not sound as if Vizzina and Reynolds struggled with Morris’ offense as much as Boyd did, which is a good thing. The Tigers are not opening up against Troy this time, instead they play at LSU, so the quarterbacks have to be ready to play.

If Clemson is to have any chance to pull off the upset in Week 1, it must get good quarterback play.

“I think they have all taken the steps in the right direction,” Morris said prior to the end of spring workouts. “CV is our top guy, and he has gotten the reps there and he has really progressed. I have been really impressed with how he has proceeded and grew this spring.”

Reynolds will go into fall camp as the clear No. 2 and is expected to push Vizzina for the starting job.

“Coming out of spring, CV is our guy, but there is still competition. No one has signed a life-time contract,” Morris said. “We want that, we want competition at every position. All across the board. There are no days off when it comes to this.”

Clemson opens the 2026 season on Sept. 5 at LSU.