Freshman quarterback Tait Reynolds came in for an injured Christopher Vizzina as Clemson beat Georgia Southern 22-7 on Saturday night at Memorial Stadium.

Vizzina got the start for the second straight game to open the season, but Reynolds took over for Vizzina after the Tigers’ third offensive series and played the rest of the contest.

Reynolds completed 16 of 27 passes for 178 yards. He also ran for 38 yards. In the first half, Reynolds completed 12 of 17 passes for 160 yards, while also rushing nine times for 32 yards.

Reynolds led five scoring drives, all of which ended in Nolan Hauser field goals. He lost a fumble at the Georgia Southern 10-yard line on his first possession, but bounced back to lead three field goal drives, helping give Clemson a 16-7 lead at halftime.

After the game, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney gave his assessment of Reynolds’ performance.

“I think you saw Tait kind of grow up in a lot of ways. He did some really good things, and he did some things that made it seem like he hadn’t practiced, or he got here like last week,” Swinney said. “But he’s a freshman, and it’s an environment — all of a sudden it’s a big moment, and all of a sudden you try to do too much and you don’t do some of the basic, routine stuff that’s not complicated stuff. … So, I think it was fast, but it was good to see him play, and he made some big-time plays. You see his gifts. … He made some off-schedule plays, which is a gift of his. He’s going to be a problem. As he continues to play, he’s going to be a really, really good player. But we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

“I thought Tait showed a lot of promise tonight. He did a lot of good stuff,” Swinney added. “I wish he had not made some of the mistakes he did, but he’ll learn from it.”

Before suffering his left arm injury, Vizzina started the game and played the first three series, completing 4 of 7 passes for 19 yards, including a 10-yard touchdown pass to T.J. Moore that gave the Tigers a 7-0 lead with 11:01 to play in the first quarter. However, Vizzina’s final pass of the contest was a poorly thrown deep ball that was intercepted.

Swinney was asked if he gained clarity at quarterback Saturday night, and he said Reynolds “made a move” in the starting quarterback competition.

“I think he made a move tonight, I really do,” Swinney said of Reynolds. “He did some gritty things. … He’s just got that ability to erase some mistakes. But he also has got to clean up some things. And CV did some good things, but the interception was just a really bad play. … Those are routine things. So, there were some things that he can clean up for sure. But he had three series, that was it. So, just didn’t get much more than that.

“But again, there was good and bad with Tait, and we’ll watch the tape. I think here’s a lot to build on.”

Clemson stays at home next week and will host North Carolina at Memorial Stadium. Kick off is set for noon on ESPN.

Swinney was asked if Reynolds will start for the Tigers against the Tar Heels next week.

“We’ll see,” Swinney said. “We’ll see.”

Swinney also updated Vizzina’s injury status following Saturday’s game.