Clemson prepped for its first full scrimmage of camp on Friday, which will take place this morning in Death Valley.
Head coach Dabo Swinney says the scrimmage will help them make a decision as to who will be playing this fall.
Here is what we heard from Day 10 of fall camp:
“Thursday is when we will start kind of getting zeroed in a little bit on who is going to definitely play,” Swinney said. “All of those things can change in a practice based on injuries and things like that.”
Swinney and co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott know some freshmen they will not redshirt this season, but the rest of their decisions will be made on Thursday.
On the offense, true freshmen Mitch Hyatt, Deon Cain and Ray Ray McCloud will likely be playing. Scott hopes to see a lot out of the freshmen receivers with veteran receiver Mike Williams sitting out of Saturday’s scrimmage due to a hamstring injury he suffered in Wednesday’s situational scrimmage.
“We know what Mike can do and he has had a good fall camp, but really I want to find out about the younger guys and really put some pressure on them before we throw them out there in a game,” Scott said.
Scott also mentioned that Williams’ hamstring scare from Wednesday’s scrimmage is not serious, but that they are being cautious with him anyways.
“Fortunately, we got a good report from the doctors, and he is going to be fine,” he said.
Freshman Tight end Garrett Williams has also made a strong case to play this fall, and the coaches have taken notice.
“He’s a guy that’s kind of gained everybody’s attention real quick in special teams, then also in short-yardage situations,” Scott said. “He’s a guy that we’re going to continue to look at and see if he can have a role for us this year.”
Scott hopes to see improvement out of his offense from the first to second scrimmage.
“We had a lot of mental errors and those are thing we have to correct,” he said.
However, Scott was pleased with what he saw from his offense on Friday.
“I thought today was one of our best days.” I’m really proud of the way the offense bounced back,” he said. “I thought the offensive line and running backs had a really good period and showed some progress from the scrimmage the other day.”
On the defensive side of the ball, Swinney has been really impressed with what he has seen from freshman linebacker Jalen Williams.
“Jalen Williams has made a real push,” he said. “We just have to continue to let them go compete. Again, we will get a little more zeroed in on Thursday,” Swinney said.