Depth chart decisions still to come as Clemson camp winds down |
Clemson returned to the practice fields Monday for the first of two final camp practices before school starts Wednesday.
The official depth chart for Furman week won’t come out until next week, but after a productive practice Monday, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney did address a couple key position battles. The one on everyone’s mind with the quarterbacks will not be announced until next week (likely Monday), where senior returning starter Kelly Bryant has carried some momentum late in camp versus talented freshmen Trevor Lawrence and Chase Brice. “We're going to finish up on Wednesday with the staff with a little more time as far as, 'Hey, here's where we are going into (next week)' - we still have a practice tomorrow,” Swinney said. “Grade this tape from today and the other practice tomorrow and then Wednesday is a staff day. We'll pretty much set the depth chart on how we will go into this game.” In another tight battle, senior kicker Greg Huegel has “separated” from a pack including from graduate Alex Spence and summer enrollee BT Potter. The former All-American and All-ACC honoree Huegel has worked his way back from a torn ACL suffered last September in practice. “He's had a great camp,” Swinney said. “Alex has had a good camp. Potter is right there doing a nice job. But Greg has really separated.” Swinney said Clemson will do some team activities afternoon before a couple meetings and an afternoon practice Tuesday. After the staff evaluation day on Wednesday, a Thursday practice will start to show where they are going into game-week before in-stadium “beanie bowl” that practices a wide-range of gameday activities. One area that hasn’t seen a major shift for Clemson this August has come with redshirt decisions, which will also be on the table come Wednesday. The NCAA rule allowing redshirt players to see at least four games of action is something the coaches will evaluate as the season goes on. “There's a reason for everything. That part of it, we're not changing anything,” Swinney said. “The only thing that will change is who are those guys that are going to redshirt - we know that at some point we can get them in a ballgame. We'll go into it - it's just something that's never been there before...It will go kinda week to week once we have decided who is definitely going to redshirt. As far as how we've gone about it, it hasn't changed anything." Going into Furman week, the Tigers’ head coach likes where his team is at overall, including health-wise. “The (injured) list was very small today,” Swinney said. “That was really good to see going into this last week. We've been very fortunate and hopefully we can keep that up as we (slow) down a little bit." Swinney on the practice after a weekend off Swinney: I've always felt less is more anyway. So it was something we decided to do in May when they changed the amount of days you could have and all that stuff. We talked about starting later or going ahead and starting when we had planned to and taking a Saturday-Sunday to just kinda refresh and recharge and refuel and refocus and recommit. So that's kinda what we talked about and decided on and I think it's great. I think everybody was ready to go this morning. Good energy. This is always a tough practice this Monday practice. We're in our third week so Wednesday is three weeks since we started. We're well into that. This day has always been a tough practice. Good day. Swinney on Trevion Thompson being back in practice Swinney: He was back today and had a good practice today. Really thought he was very sharp and very crisp today.
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