Dabo Swinney has found himself in a bind heading into Saturday’s matchup against The Citadel. Swinney held his weekly press conference, Tuesday, and revealed the Tigers are shuffling the offensive line due to a surge of injuries that have sidelined nine linemen.
Clemson has some talented freshmen that can step into the vacated roles, but playing freshmen Mason Wade and Ronan O’Connell this week against the Bulldogs puts the staff in a quandary entering the season finale. Wade and O’Connell have each played in three games and NCAA rules stipulate that both players can count this as a redshirt season if they participate in four games or fewer. If the pair of talented freshmen are pressed into action this Saturday, they’ll have to either sit out the South Carolina game or burn their redshirts.
It’s certain that Elyjah Thurmon (ankle), Dietrick Pennington (ACL), Ian Reed (knee), Watson Young (ACL) or Collin Sadler (calf) will not be available, all having undergone season-ending surgery. That leaves Tristan Leigh (questionable) as the most likely to return and ease the pressure. Swinney said Leigh has gone from “week-to-week to day-to-day” and is trending in the right direction.
Despite the stress caused by the cluster of injuries to the line, Swinney expressed his excitement about this week’s game against The Citadel as Clemson will honor both the Military and Tigers’ seniors. Saturday’s game will kick off at 3:30 p.m.
Key comments from Dabo Swinney
- Swinney said he’s happy to be back at the Valley this week. This week we will honor our seniors and celebrate them individually. It’s also Military Appreciation week and we’re proud to honor their service and the heritage we have at Clemson
- The Citadel is playing with confidence (won 3 of 4) and they’re changing their identity. They still have some option principles, but they’re throwing it around more. This is their last game and they’ve got a lot of grad players across their 2-deep
- On DL: I think TJ (Parker) won his matchup and played his best game of year. But w/(DeMonte) Capehart out, we’re just trying to get our best 11 on field, so we moved Peter (Woods) inside. Points out the development of young d-linemen, especially last 2 games
- On Citadel offense: A lot of different personnel groupings. QB is still leading rusher and two good backs. Biggest thing is they have a better throwing game than before. We’re bigger, so they might not block us sometimes and read us instead
- On Senior Day: Going to have to cut a lot of players before next season and is giving players that have been at #Clemson for four years option of being honored at Senior Day. And some guys may truly not know if they’ll return, so they have the option, too
- On depleted o-line: Nine guys out for practice today, so we’ve got to find a way to practice. You may have some guys playing out of position. We had been lucky w/injuries but we’ve hit a rough patch
- Says he’s still doesn’t KNOW what targeting is. It’s different week-to-week, league-to-league, ref-to-ref. In general, doesn’t know what it is. It’s VERY subjective
- More on injuries: (Wade) Woodaz is getting better. Nasty bruise. Much improved and will hopefully keep heading into that direction. (RJ) Mickens is limited in practice. (DeMonte) Capehart is day-to-day. Tristan (Leigh) is questionable this week. (Troy) Stellato is out for year (thumb surgery)