Practice Insider: Former ACC head coach visits, offense looking better

Clemson held its latest spring practice session and hosted former GT coach Geoff Collins as well.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Wed Mar 29 16:34:07 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON – Clemson’s offense is beginning to look crisp.

The Tigers held another practice Wednesday afternoon under sunny skies, and the crisp pace of the offense matched the crispness in the air.

We were allowed to watch the first few periods of the practice, and the early portion was spent seeing who was in yellow or green jerseys and who was back at practice. Two notables – defensive end Justin Mascoll was in green and left guard Mitchell Mayes was in yellow.

Mayes sported a brace on his left knee, and his absence led to an extended look for one of the freshmen – Harris Sewell took the first-team reps at left guard.

The first-team offense in the tempo drill was Brannon Spector, Cole Turner and Antonio Williams at receiver, Jake Briningstool at tight end, the O-line (l-r) Tristan Leigh, Harris Sewell, Will Putnam, Trent Howard and Blake Miller, with Cade Klubnik at quarterback and Will Shipley at running back.

*Antonio Williams, Will Shipley and Hamp Greene were the first three at punt return. Aidan Swanson looks pretty solid at punter.

*We’ve noted in the past that the tempo period used to be offense on air, but now the defense is involved. That good-on-good scenario led to a spirited session that saw Cole Turner grab a 50-50 jump ball on the sideline, and then saw Antonio Williams make a nice grab in the endzone.

As you can expect, there is a lot of screaming and yelling and talking during the period, and when the offense scored it was Shipley that led the way off the field, shrieking at the top of his lungs. The next drive was stalled by a false start and then a bad snap, but that was the exception and not the rule.

My observation is that the offense is moving fast – maybe faster than I’ve seen since the Chad Morris days – and the Tigers are using the middle of the field with the receivers and the tight ends. The quarterback knows where the open receiver is going to be and delivers the fast quickly. The word that one observer used was crisp, and I like it. The offense looks better than we’ve seen in a long time.

And, for what it’s worth, I think tight end Jake Briningstool is going to put up some big numbers under Garrett Riley. He looks like a mismatch for defensive backs or linebackers, and he will be a formidable weapon this season.

Also, we heard from wide receivers coach Tyler Grisham and running backs coach CJ Spiller about Turner. Spiller is adamant that Turner is “special” and while Grisham won’t send a lot of praise the redshirt freshman’s way, you can tell everyone around the program thinks Turner has a ton of potential. To see him winning those 50-50 balls and fighting to get open over the middle backs up what we’ve heard.

*There were a few notable visitors, including a large contingent from Nike and former Clemson defensive end Richard Yeargin. Yeargin has a book dropping in a few weeks, joining former Tiger Dante Stewart as recent published authors.

*Former Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins was also in attendance and spent some time talking to head coach Dabo Swinney. Before anyone gets any ideas, Collins said it was a simply a way for him to get out of the house and watch some football. He told me has had offers to coach, but right now is enjoying being a husband and a dad.

He did mention that Clemson’s facilities are “ridiculous” and I have to wonder how he feels after coaching at Georgia Tech, where the indoor facility is just 70 yards long. I’ve heard the outdoor practice field is also just 70 yards.

*Saw a coach from Alabaster (AL) Thompson. We chatted for a few minutes about their program (which produced current Clemson freshman defensive tackle Peter Woods), and I asked him who he thought was the best player to come through their program in the last decade. He laughed and said, “It’s not even close. He’s here.”