Shortly after second-ranked Clemson wrapped up practice on Thursday night, Auburn named Sean White as its starting quarterback for the Sept. 3 opener.

While those Tigers were talking about White going against the Clemson defense back on the Plains, Clemson co-offensive coordinator Tony Elliott was describing to the media back in Clemson what it will be like to go against his former co-worker, Auburn defensive coordinator Kevin Steele.

Steele coordinated the Clemson defense and coached the linebackers from 2009-’11 under head coach Dabo Swinney. Elliott joined Swinney’s staff in 2011, Steele’s last year at Clemson.

“We’re having a chance, now that camp is over and we’re back in school, to get a good look at them on film and kind of figure out what they’re going to do,” Elliott said. “Obviously you’re looking at what Coach Steele did at LSU last year, and what they did this spring in the spring game, just trying to turn over every stone in anticipation of what we’re going to see. But it’s been good prep so far.”

Back at LSU, Steele changed things up a little from what he did back when he was the DC at Clemson. However, Elliott says he still does a few things the same, and he can see his Nick Saban influences, back when Steele worked for Saban at Alabama.

“You see a lot of similarity, but you also see some things he’s doing differently,” Elliott said. “Obviously, he has an Alabama background, so he’s worked with Nick Saban. He knows that odd front, so you see him jumping in and out of structure a lot like he did here a lot.

“He can play odd, he can play four down, he can play man coverage, he can play zone. Their guys do a really good job of disguising coverage, so you see a lot similarities to when he was here, but you also see a couple of changes, as well, that you’ve seen him develop over the years.”

Tigers in good health. It looks like Clemson will head into game week pretty healthy. Swinney says only defensive end Austin Bryant is out for the Auburn game. Bryant of course fractured part of his foot on Aug. 15, and will miss the first three games of the season.

“Hopefully, he will heal quickly,” Swinney said. “That’s just one of those things were you assess him each week and we will look up a few weeks from now and hopefully, he will be ready to come back here in a few more weeks. Whenever he is ready, he is ready.”

What’s Edmond’s deal? Swinney does not know how much of an impact cornerback Marcus Edmond will make in the Auburn game, if any at all. The Clemson coach said the redshirt junior will not start because he has missed way too much time.

Edmond missed all of preseason camp after suffering a hamstring injury on the first day of practice. He did not return to practice full-time until this past Monday.

“It’s good to see him back out there. He has to get in shape, and when I say shape, I mean he has to get in football shape,” Swinney said. “He has to get his sea legs back under him because it has been a while and he missed, and literally from Day 1, he got hurt Day 1, so he missed a ton of work.

“So he is certainly not in a position to where he could go start the game for us, but he is going to be able to play if we need him to. I’m more just focused on getting back and getting him dialed in and ready to go for the long term of the season.”

Dabo not happy with 9 p.m. start? Though he did not come right out and say it, Swinney did indicate he was not pleased with the 9 p.m. start against Auburn on Sept. 3. When he was talking about Edmond and his ability to play or not in the game, Swinney said, “We are still whatever, nine or ten days out, and we play about one o’clock in the morning, I think? So he has plenty of time to get ready.”