Wednesday night news and notes: Injuries, new NCAA rules, and more

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney updated the latest after practice midweek.

David Hood - Senior Writer - Wednesday, October 09 2024

CLEMSON – It’s not necessarily bad news when head coach Dabo Swinney’s Wednesday post-practice interview is not exciting.

Swinney’s Tigers take on Wake Forest at noon Saturday in Winston-Salem. Clemson is attempting to win its 16th consecutive game against Wake Forest to take sole possession of the longest winning streak in series history (passing its 15 from 1977-91). Clemson’s current 15-game winning streak against Wake Forest is the Tigers’ longest active winning streak against an ACC foe.

Swinney met with the media and covered a range of topics. On the injury front, he said there was nothing notable to report, and there are a few guys that they will make a decision on Friday before the team departs for North Carolina.

Here are some of the takeaways:

On the NCAA decision to do away with the National Letter of Intent

“There'll be some type of scholarship agreement will take its place, but I don't know many details on all that, but I am encouraged that the rev share seems like it is going to the next step and pushing forward. So that's a positive.”

On Khalil Barnes and Clemson’s involvement late in his recruitment, stealing him from Wake Forest (former Demon Deacons commit)

“He was a guy a lot of people recruited as a receiver, and initially that was kind of what he wanted to play, but he's just a kid that is the epitome of what we talk about in this game of guys develop, guys get better. That's one of the reasons I don't like to offer freshmen and sophomores is a lot of times those freshmen and sophomores aren't the best players as seniors. A lot of times, those sophomores that you wouldn't really offer by the time they're seniors, man, they're great players, and it's a developmental game, and he's a guy that just kept getting better and better and better, and really glad we got him. He's a special player.”

On the Wake Forest defense moving people around

“They move everybody. They don't really stand still very often. They're all active and up-the-field type of guys. Got some explosiveness to 'em, but they move everywhere. I mean, they are constantly slanting and twisting and adding or dropping. So we got to be able to handle and identify where everybody is and handle all the movement that we'll see with this bunch.

On Troy Stellato getting back in the lineup

“He is just one of those seven (potential starters). They're all battling for time. And so, he had some nice plays for us, had a few good catches and some contested plays, but just continued to do his job. There's a couple other opportunities that he created some separation and got open, didn't get the ball, but he's impacting the game without the ball, too. And that's what we try to get these guys to understand is whether you played 20 plays or 40 plays, maybe you have four catches, and everybody thinks you had a great game. How did you impact the game on all those other plays? Did it matter that you were on the field? And so all those guys are competing. He's trying to take advantage of his opportunity and a tough kid, but we got a great group of depth and all those guys deserve opportunity to play. He's one of 'em.”

On who would play in the Jumbo package

“That is intellectual property. You just have to wait and see. Who says we have jumbo package? Who says that? I don't know, but you never know. We may, and you'll see once we run 'em out there.”