CLEMSON — In case you did not know, Clemson is not opening this football season against Eastaboga Community College.

Nope, instead the ACC’s Tigers are opening against LSU in Baton Rouge, La., of all places and in a stadium where the SEC’s Tigers have won nearly 80 percent of their games at night, which is when Clemson visits Tiger Stadium.

What do you do if you are Dabo Swinney? Do you start a mature quarterback, who may not have much game experience, like Christopher Vizzina, but is 22-years old and seen a few things in his college career. Or do you start the freshman, who is talented, but is wet behind the ears and has barely lived on his own, like Tait Reynolds.

This is the dilemma Swinney and new offensive coordinator Chad Morris face, as the Clemson Tigers get set open fall camp on Thursday at the practice fields behind the Allen Reeves Football Complex.  

“We may go into the season, and CV may clearly separate in fall camp. Or maybe Tait wins it. (The competition) may be close. Who knows? I don’t have a crystal ball,” Swinney said. “All I know is I got good players that we believe in and we got a bunch of playmakers that are going to make plays no matter who throws it to them.”

It is times like this when Swinney really would love to have the same advantages every level of football has except college – scrimmages against other teams. This will be the perfect to see how Vizzina responds in a game-like situation or how the freshman does when he is about to get hit for the first time by a college player.

“I’ve seen a bunch of seven-on-seven quarterbacks and seven-on-seven wideouts and I get all these clips, but when you turn the game tape on, they can’t play the game,” Swinney said. “It’s a different deal. And so, sometimes you don’t know, and this has been a frustration. We’re the only ones in our sport who can’t scrimmage.

“We don’t have that. (Quarterbacks) don’t get hit. We’re not going to hit our quarterbacks in practice. So, now all of a sudden, you got to create Baton Rouge. I mean, I can make it loud, but I can’t create how that guy is going to respond when gets his helmet knocked sideways by that linebacker who just blitzed up the middle.”

Thus is Clemson’s problem, or any school that has a new starting quarterback this season. It does not matter if the quarterback is a freshman or a redshirt junior, as Swinney said, Clemson is not playing Eastaboga Community College on Sept. 5., they are playing LSU.