Back in January, few could have predicted how things would play out at quarterback for Clemson this season.

Once it was clear Dabo Swinney would not be pursuing a player from the portal to come in and take over for the departing Cade Klubnik, most were already penciling in Christopher Vizzina as the next man up. In his fourth season with the program, Vizzina would hold what Swinney called the “pole position” throughout the spring, summer and fall camp.

While freshman Tait Reynolds was certainly pushing him, Vizzina ultimately did win the job and got the start against LSU when Clemson began the season in Baton Rouge. Reynolds also played some in the opener. It was hard to imagine things changing as quickly as they were about to.

A week later, the Reynolds era would officially begin after Vizzina was injured in a win over Georgia Southern. However, in the days following that game, Swinney made it pretty clear Reynolds had won the job outright based on “body of work” and not because Vizzina had suffered an injury.

“We made the change,” Swinney said at the time. “Tait has passed him, and he’s won the job.”

Despite being listed as a game-time decision the following week against North Carolina, Vizzina has not played since. It has since been revealed that he was dealing with a fracture in his left elbow.

However, in his Tuesday press conference, Swinney painted the picture a little differently regarding how things have played out at quarterback, intimating that had Vizzina not gotten injured, the quarterback battle would have raged on. And maybe it would have, just with Reynolds running out there first. But it’s hard to forget when Swinney said Reynolds had passed Vizzina by and that was why he’d won the job. Now he’s saying the team was forced into this situation.

“I think there definitely would have been a battle,” Swinney said on Tuesday. “Again, CV was going back into the (Georgia Southern) game. We were going 3-and-3 in that game. We went to put CV back in, and he could not play. Could not feel his arm. So, the extended time, and now you want to rally around your guy. You know he is going to have to go and start against North Carolina next week, and you know CV is out. So, yeah, (Reynolds) was the guy. That is where we were based on the situation.”

“My point is, we thought we would have both of those guys, and it would be a little different process as we’ve gone, and it would maybe happen in a different way. Maybe CV really solidifies himself, or Tait keeps coming, or vice versa. But we were kind of forced into the situation we were in.”

It has been anything but the conventional path to get to get here, but what’s done is done, and the past really doesn’t matter at this point. What happens from here on out is what’s most important, seeing as the Tigers absolutely need to find a way to string together some wins.

With a trip to Tallahassee on deck to face off with Florida State, and the offense ranking as one of the worst in the country in multiple statistical categories, the Tigers need to find some answers, and quickly.

Make no mistake, having a freshman quarterback isn’t the only thing plaguing Clemson’s offense, but Reynolds has no doubt experienced his share of struggles. After five starts, the rookie signal caller is not only having a hard time reading the field, but he’s still having problems in the read-option game. So much so, the coaching staff took that part of the offense away from him after halftime in the loss to Virginia Tech on Saturday, in favor of more designed runs.

If Reynolds continues to struggle, could Swinney turn back to Vizzina, who was finally fully back at practice last week heading into the matchup with the Hokies? It seems like if that were going to happen, it would have happened after halftime against Virginia Tech. Clemson had just 95 yards of offense over the first two quarters, with Reynolds throwing for just 27. It was about as ineffective as you can get.

Swinney is definitely making it sound like Vizzina is still in the picture. At least somewhat.

“We will see. But Tait is the starter. He has earned that opportunity. He has done a lot of good things, but he has to go play well,” Swinney said. “If something changes, you will see it. But we are where we are right now.”

At this point, it almost feels like you have to ride with Reynolds barring something unforeseen and let the freshman basically keep learning on the job. Vizzina certainly didn’t look like a quarterback that thought he had a chance to play against Virginia Tech. He wasn’t throwing with other quarterbacks during timeouts and he was barely involved in any of the offensive huddles.

While Reynolds has certainly had a rough go of it up until this point, maybe this trial by fire ends up benefitting him in the end, and over the next few weeks he starts to blossom into what Swinney believes he can be.