Swinney says with OL a M*A*S*H unit, walk-ons will play a big role this weekend

Clemson's OL has taken a beating the last few weeks.

David Hood - Senior Writer - Tuesday, November 19 2024

CLEMSON – Raise your hand if you can play the offensive line and have eligibility.

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney told the media Tuesday that nine offensive linemen missed Monday’s practice, and there might be some names Tiger fans don’t recognize take the field Saturday against The Citadel.

The Tigers entered last weekend’s game at Pitt without starting left tackle Tristan Leigh, starting left guard Marcus Tate, and reserves Collin Sadler, Ian Reed, and Dietrick Pennington are already out for the year. Backup left tackle Elyjah Thurmon was injured on the first play against the Panthers, forcing right tackle Blake Miller to move to left tackle, right guard Walker Parks moved to right tackle, left guard Harris Sewell moved to right guard, and Trent Howard entered the game to play left guard.

Swinney said the coaches are trying to find enough players to practice this week.

“I think we have nine guys out for practice today, so we're just trying to figure out how to practice today,” Swinney said during his Tuesday press conference. “So it's going to be interesting.”

Freshmen offensive linemen Ronan O’Connell and Mason Wade have each played three games, and can still play in one more to preserve a redshirt. Swinney said the coaches will do what they have to do to win, but made it sound like he would love to hold both this week in case they are needed against South Carolina.

“We consider everything. Absolutely. We definitely consider that Ronan's been starting on us at field goal,” Swinney said. “And so he's a guy that we may have to use and then we have to figure it out next week. And then Mason is a guy that we'd like to hold if we can with our situation. I mean he could help us win the game next week (South Carolina). And you don't want to waste the year, but you have to do what you have to do to win the game you're playing.”

Swinney then said that Clemson fans need to look deep in the program to see who will play offensive line this weekend.

“I mean just we have what we have. We have to make it work,” Swinney said. “You're going to see some - we have guys like Will Boggs, y'all are going to be looking up in your media guide, trying to figure out, you're going see some guys maybe playing out of position, but we have to find a way. We have to do what we have to do to get it done. And hopefully again, we've got some guys trending in a good direction. But as we sit right now on Tuesday, we're trying to figure out how we're going to practice today.”

Injuries have gradually taken a toll on the guys up front.

“And obviously, we lost Dietrick, who has been out for a while, Watson (Young), we lost at the beginning of the year. Ian Reed, we lost at the beginning of the year and we've been pretty good,” Swinney said. “We've actually been pretty lucky, but we just kind of hit a little rough patch with the situation, obviously with Tristan and Marcus. And then boom, Elyjah, worst case scenario happened. And Sadler really probably has hurt us more than anything because he can play everywhere and is such a good player. So, I mean, it's been a tough deal, but hey, we'll figure it out.

“That's what we have to do. We have no excuses. We have to find a way to make it work. We have some walk-on guys that are going to have to come through for us. And then again, we have some guys that are going to have to maybe play out a position and try to get everybody healthy. But we're just one day at a time. We're day-to-day. We're trying to figure out how we're going to practice today. If we can get through today, we'll see what tomorrow brings.”