Something not only feels different about this fall camp in Clemson, but there is also a different demeanor to Dabo Swinney.
During his last meeting with the media after Tuesday’s practice, Swinney brought a different edge with him to the podium. The generally optimistic head coach mostly wasn’t interested in providing any updates on the progress of specific players. He wasn’t much interested in diving too deep into the progress of his new offense under Chad Morris, much less how the quarterback competition between Chris Vizzina and Tait Reynolds was playing out a week into camp.
“Just a bunch of nobodies,” Swinney said. “We will see if anybody becomes somebody as we play some games.”
Swinney wasn’t even willing to talk very much about the Tigers’ opening opponent, LSU, as Clemson travels to Baton Rouge to open the season on September 5.
However, different might not be a bad thing. The usual approach sure didn’t seem to work ahead of last season, as Swinney’s team struggled to a 1-3 start, with two of those losses coming by one score.
Clemson has actually dropped each of its past three season-openers, dating back to 2024, when the Tigers fell at Duke 28-7. So, maybe what was needed was some type of reset. Even if it’s a small, nuanced one
Coming off the second-worst season of his head coaching career, Swinney is only worried about getting his program heading back in the right direction. That means more wins. Whatever that takes.
Swinney has even clamped down on who is allowed in to watch practice. While Clemson has held closed practices for some time now, there were always some exceptions. Not so much this fall. The sidelines have been less crowded during the three media viewing windows, and the head coach is only allowing former players and members of their family in for the first scrimmage on Saturday. That’s another fairly big change.
While some of the fans may be wanting to look ahead to the first game and talk about a Death Valley vs Death Valley matchup, Swinney isn’t. Right now, he’s all business.
“It has nothing to do with the game,” Swinney said. “Just focus on the game. Focus on getting ready to go play a ballgame.”
“All that other stuff, I mean, everybody can talk about it or make something of it. It has nothing to do with the game. We just got to get ready to play a great opponent in a tough environment. So that is really what our focus is, and we’ve got a long way to go.”
