Clemson’s quarterback battle is a two-man race between fourth-year veteran Christopher Vizzina and first-year talent Tait Reynolds.

Following the departure of three-year starter Cade Klubnik, Vizzina remains in what head coach Dabo Swinney calls the pole position, and he will still be at the top of the quarterback depth chart when fall camp gets underway. However, Reynolds really pushed Vizzina in the spring and has continued to do so through summer workouts, and Reynolds will get his shot during fall camp to push for the starting job.

In an episode of his Always College Football show, ESPN analyst Greg McElroy weighed in on Clemson’s quarterback competition, saying the program’s QB transitions have historically been more like a “monarchy” or a “succession plan” as opposed to a true battle.

“Cade Klubnik is gone after three years as the starter, and before Klubnik, it was DJ Uiagalelei. Before him, it was Trevor Lawrence. Before him, it was Deshaun Watson, so you understand what that means,” McElroy said. “You had Kelly Bryant in there as well. But Clemson has not had a big-time quarterback competition in quite a while. They’ve had a bit of a succession plan, a little bit like a monarchy.”

Heading into 2026 after his first three years at Clemson, Vizzina has completed 61 percent of his passes for 596 yards and four touchdowns with one interception in 238 career offensive snaps across 14 games, while also rushing for 109 yards and a touchdown on 38 carries.

Last season, Vizzina appeared in five games, completing 63.4 percent of his passes for 406 yards and four touchdowns with one interception, while also rushing for 41 yards on 25 carries. He made his first career start (and only start thus far) vs. SMU at Memorial Stadium on Oct. 18, as Klubnik missed the contest after suffering a sprained ankle in the Tigers’ game at Boston College one week earlier. In the 35-24 loss to SMU, Vizzina completed 29-of-42 passes for 317 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions for a pass efficiency rating of 156.0.

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 (Ariz.) 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.

McElroy noted that Vizzina has patiently waited his turn for years in the program and knows where to go with the football, while Reynolds is a former multi-sport star who has infused some intrigue into the competition by clearly separating himself from other backups and pushing Vizzina during the spring.

“Now it’s Christopher Vizzina against Tait Reynolds. And Dabo Swinney has been about as clear as it gets — the job is Vizzina’s to lose,” McElroy said. “He’s a fourth-year guy with one career start. North of a hundred passing attempts, where he sat and waited behind Klubnik. Look, he’s waited his entire career for this, and on tape, you can kind of see a quarterback who knows exactly where the ball is supposed to go. The question has always been whether he can rip it there against people who are trying to get after him.

“Reynolds is a freshman, and here’s the fun part – he was a three-star [according to most recruiting services]. Not the five-star hype, not the NIL bidding war, not the recruiting industrial complex — just a big, dual-sport athlete that showed up and started making it a bit of a conversation.”

Though Reynolds has been pushing hard and could continue to do so in fall camp, McElroy believes Vizzina is the “clear starter.” McElroy predicts him to ultimately win the starting job because Swinney has made it clear that the position is Vizzina’s to lose and he is the preferable option to lead the Clemson offense through the hostile environment of their Sept. 5 season opener at LSU.

“It’s Chris Vizzina. I don’t think it’s particularly close,” McElroy said. “Dabo Swinney does not say it’s his to lose by accident. This is a man that is not necessarily leaving a door open. That’s a man telling you the answer in a way that lets him keep the freshman engaged. And look at the calendar, too — Week 1 is a road trip to Baton Rouge against Lane Kiffin and Sam Leavitt. So, you don’t hand that environment to a freshman who was recruited eight months ago. You hand it to a fourth-year guy that’s been sitting in that meeting room since ’23 waiting for this.

“This is not a place you send a quarterback to find himself. That’s a place you send a quarterback to find out.”