Clemson coaches and players excited about Thursday night season opener

Clemson will face Georgia Tech on a Thursday evening

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Wed Jul 31 21:01:03 GMT-04:00 2019

CLEMSON – The national champs. Heisman candidates all over the field. Network debut. Season opener. Thursday night.

Clemson’s season opener on August 29th against Georgia Tech has all the ingredients for a special Thursday night to open the ACC Network, and co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott says the coaches and players are just as excited as the fans.

“I am excited about that. Especially as fall camp goes, you are ready to play, so to get to play a couple of days earlier is a good thing,” Scott said. “I know we don't major in Thursday night games, but I think for whatever reason there's a little extra excitement in the stadium. There is always a lot of excitement for the first game. And then also being the first game on the ACC network will be really special.

“So, I'm sure there'll be a lot of juice and obviously, Georgia Tech has a new coaching staff and there is a lot of new energy over there. I know there will be a lot of excitement. Right now, that seems like so far away because I know the process here over the next month. But there's no doubt our guys will be excited and be ready to go on that Thursday night.”

The Tigers start fall camp Friday – the big weigh-in is at 1:30 Thursday – and Scott said he is ready to see how the roster comes together.

“Every year is exciting. When you have a talented group, it's probably a little bit more exciting. It doesn't feel a lot different than last year or the year before,” Scott said. “I think we've been fortunate on offense and defense to have some talented groups every year. So that's not really new. But I think just being able to start over and being able to kind of see how this group comes together in August and what it kinda starts to look like as we get ready for that opener, I think that is probably the most exciting part of this time of year.”

Scott is not only excited about the opener, but he’s also excited to see the next group of players.

“To me, that's one of the exciting things about college football is your roster does change every year, and maybe the NFL free agency is changing more than maybe it has in the past, but you know that's normal for us,” Scott said. “I think we're blessed that we do have a big group of guys that have played that come back and you're happy for those guys that have graduated and moved on. But you're excited about the next group and the guys that have been working hard waiting for their opportunity.

“And there's a really big group of guys, not just some of the true freshmen coming in, there are some redshirt freshmen, some sophomores that have really been in the program and been working hard and kind of waiting for their time. And that's what this fall is going to be for them I'm excited about that.”