Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney taught starting quarterback Tait Reynolds the Wally Pipp lesson during Saturday’s game vs. Charleston Southern.

During his postgame press conference following the Tigers’ 37-0 win at Memorial Stadium, Swinney shared a funny interaction between himself and Reynolds that took place when the true freshman left the game briefly during the third quarter after coming up gimpy on a play, prompting backup Trent Pearman to step in.

That’s when Swinney brought up the aforementioned Wally Pipp story to Reynolds.

The famous story of Pipp is that he took a day off from the New York Yankees’ lineup on June 2, 1925, because of a headache — letting Lou Gehrig, an eventual Hall of Famer, take his place at first base — and Pipp never got his job back.

Swinney says he playfully told Reynolds “I may never put you back in.”

“I told him – you know, he’s a baseball guy – I said, Tait … He was a little mad at me, but he was gimpy,” Swinney said of Reynolds. “He goes, ‘I’m going back in next play.’ I said, ‘No, you’re not. You’ll go back in when I put you in.’ So we had a little discussion. And then he said, ‘No, I’m going back in. I’m fine.’ And I said, ‘No, you’re going to sit right here.’

“And then I said, ‘Have you ever heard of Wally Pipp?’ … Of course, he hadn’t heard of Wally Pipp … You know why you haven’t heard of Wally Pipp? Because he took a day off, and they put this guy named Lou Gehrig in. You’ve probably heard of him. So that’s what I told Tait. I said, ‘So, I may never put you back in.’ So we had a little back-and-forth about the Wally Pipp story, and then we put him back in.”

Swinney made it clear postgame that Reynolds only needed a brief moment to rest on the sideline before returning to the game and finishing the drive. Swinney added that the injury is not an issue and he’s fine.

“He really wanted to go back in,” Swinney said. “And it was good, because I didn’t want people to think he was hurt. He was just a little banged up, a little gimpy in the moment.”

Reynolds completed 17 of 26 passes for 127 yards, while also rushing for 40 yards on seven carries.

The Tigers (4-2, 2-1 ACC) return to action next Saturday night against Virginia Tech at Memorial Stadium.