During his Tuesday press conference previewing Saturday’s season opener at LSU, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney announced that senior Christopher Vizzina has won the starting quarterback job for Week 1.

However, Reynolds pushed hard throughout the offseason, and Swinney made it clear that Reynolds remains a big part of the plans moving forward.

The Week 1 starting job is settled, but Swinney says it’s an ongoing competition that will be dictated by performance on the field over the course of the season.

“I’ve got to give Tait a ton of credit,” Swinney said. “This kid is a true freshman walking in here. He is really super talented. But you can’t just be talented. And he ain’t going away. I think he’s going to continue to compete.”

“The players all believe in both of these guys,” Swinney continued. “The good news for us is I think both of them can win for Clemson. That’s honestly as truthful as I can be with you. That’s just where we are, so just look forward to watching those guys compete and battle it out.”

Though Vizzina will run out first as the starting signal-caller for Clemson on Saturday night, will Reynolds still see some action in Baton Rouge as well?

Swinney stated that Reynolds will “likely” play against LSU, but Swinney didn’t go as far as to guarantee it.

“I’m not going to guarantee that he’s going to play, but I would say it’s probably likely,” Swinney said. “Because we have to continue the competition, and go from there.”

Swinney was asked whether Clemson will have a package for Reynolds in Saturday’s game, or if Clemson is mapping out when he’ll enter the contest, like planning to give him the third series of the game, for example.

Swinney indicated that there’s no special package in place for Reynolds because the first-year talent is fully capable of running the entire Clemson offense like Vizzina.

“No package-type stuff,” Swinney said. “They can both run the Clemson offense the way we need it run. We wouldn’t have to limit anything. These guys are both ready to run whatever we want them to run. When I say [not] guaranteed to play, it’s just that – I’m not going to guarantee, hey, he’s going in third series. I would just say it’s probably likely he’ll play. I’ll just leave it at that.”

Reynolds was the No. 3 prospect in the state of Arizona and the 11th-best dual-threat quarterback nationally in the 2026 recruiting class, according to ESPN.

A hamstring injury basically robbed Reynolds of his entire senior season at Queen Creek High School, but before that, he completed 61.9 percent of his passes for 2,238 yards with 22 touchdowns and only five interceptions as a junior in 2024. He also rushed 137 times for 1,426 yards and 19 touchdowns that year en route to being named by the Arizona Cardinals as the state’s player of the year.

Reynolds is a two-sport standout who has also exceled on the baseball diamond. Initially, many believed his future would center around baseball. He was originally committed to play baseball at Arizona State. Although the more football he played, the more apparent it became that he possessed the tools to be a high-level quarterback.

Shortly after picking up his offer from Clemson, Reynolds backed off that commitment to the Sun Devils. Colorado, North Carolina, Miami, Texas A&M and Oklahoma were just a handful of the close to 30 football offers he ultimately landed for football.

While Reynolds has been very open in the past about his desire to play both sports at the collegiate level, he opted not to play baseball for the Tigers during the 2026 season in order to focus on football and competing for the starting quarterback job.

Swinney praised Reynolds, saying, “He’s big, he can fly and he’s got a rocket-launcher.”

“He’s probably got every record in the weight room for quarterbacks in the history of our school, as a true freshman. He’s just very, very gifted,” Swinney said. “He’s obviously a two-sport star. Not a two-sport good player – he’s a two-sport star, and gave up baseball this spring to come compete, and he’s done that.”

Swinney believes the “best-case scenario” for Clemson at the quarterback position this year is that Vizzina “lights it up” and keeps the starting job, while Reynolds performs well when given the opportunity and also gets the chance to “play a bunch” in Year 1.

“We believe in Tait based on what he’s done,” Swinney said. “I think he’s going to be a great player. I really do. He probably ain’t going to be at Clemson five years. He’s a super talented kid, and we’ll see how it plays out. But at some point he’ll get a chance to play.

“Best-case scenario is CV lights it up and goes and has a great year, and Tait gets to play a bunch and does well, too.”