Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney explained why senior backup quarterback Christopher Vizzina did not play in the Tigers’ 37-0 win over Charleston Southern on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

During his postgame press conference, Swinney said the Tigers opted to let fifth-year QB Trent Pearman and true freshman Brock Bradley play instead.

Vizzina continues to recover from a left elbow injury suffered in the Week 2 game against Georgia Southern, and while he has made a lot of progress, Swinney acknowledged Vizzina is still not quite 100%.

Swinney mentioned that he even asked Vizzina if he wanted to go in on the final drive of Saturday’s game, and Vizzina told Swinney to put in Bradley instead.

“In fact, I asked [Vizzina]. I said, ‘Do you want to go in, or do you want to put Brock in?’ And he’s like, ‘Let’s put Brock in.’ So, that was really his call,” Swinney said. “We wanted to get Trent in there and let him get some good work. He’s been practicing his butt off for the last few weeks, getting all those [No.] two [QB] reps. … Good to get Brock in there with a couple minutes left, just to get him in the game.”

Swinney noted that Vizzina wasn’t available at all for the North Carolina game in Week 3 due to his injury, and then was only available as an emergency QB option for the Week 4 game at Cal.

However, Swinney confirmed that Vizzina is “available” and “ready to go” now, and was for the Charleston Southern game.

“He was not available for North Carolina, and then the Cal game, he would have only played if necessary,” Swinney said. “It would have had to be a disaster. That was kind of where we were. And he was willing to do that, and they had given him some pain stuff on gameday. And then he’s just really gotten better and better. This was the first week, this past week, he was really able to practice the way he needs to practice.”

“I wouldn’t have had any problem putting him in the game [Saturday vs. Charleston Southern]. I wouldn’t have had any problem,” Swinney added. “But getting him in there with three minutes [left]… That’s why I was like, ‘Do you want to go, or do you want to get Brock in there?’ He wanted to just let Brock get in there and get going. So, he’s getting better. He’s on the mend. He’s coming.”

As you know, true freshman Tait Reynolds took over as Clemson’s starting quarterback ahead of the Week 3 matchup vs. North Carolina after Vizzina started each of the Tigers’ first two games this season.

Swinney confirmed before the UNC game that Reynolds earned the start based on his performance in the Tigers’ 22-7 win over Georgia Southern a week earlier and not because Vizzina got injured in that game.

Across the two games he’s played in this season, both starts, Vizzina completed 14-of-23 passes (60.9%) for 102 yards with one touchdown pass and two interceptions.

As Vizzina works his way back to full health, Swinney made it clear that Reynolds is definitively locked into the starting QB role and has “earned that.”

But Swinney added that there will be a point this season where “we’ll need CV.”

“Tait’s the starter. Tait’s earned that,” Swinney said. “It just kind of happened differently than maybe what we thought. But no, Tait’s the starter. But we’ll need CV at some point, for sure.”