Winners, Losers from Clemson's First Scrimmage of Fall Camp

CLEMSON — If he was pushed to say who was the big winner in Saturday’s first stadium scrimmage of fall camp, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney would say it was his offensive line.

A much maligned group during the off-season, Matt Luke’s offensive line seems to be coming into its own as camp progress.

“I am really pleased with how they have performed to this point, so I was anxious to see them go today and I think they came right out and, the opening drive, touchdown drive,” Swinney said.

Besides the offensive line, the Clemson coach mentioned how his wide receivers and tight ends flashed during the two-hour scrimmage at Memorial Stadium.

“I saw us finish on some plays that we need to finish on and there were a couple of others you would like to see us make,” Swinney said.

With the offensive line playing well, Clemson’s running game was effective. All the running backs they used in the scrimmage ran the football well. As for the quarterbacks, Cade Klubnik had a solid morning, while Christopher Vizzina continues to have a good camp.

“Cade Klubnik had a good day and so did CV. [Trent] Pearman missed on a few plays he would like to have back, but he came back and responded later in the scrimmage,” Swinney said.

The story of the day, however, was the offensive line, where having a lot of experience back upfront seems to be paying off for the Tigers.

“We have more guys that have played a lot of football. You should be better. It is not a surprise,” Swinney said. “Just like it is not a surprise sometimes when you have some young guys you have to count on that maybe have to go through a few growing pains.”

Speaking of growing pains, the defense had its share on Saturday. Swinney mentioned there were several missed tackles that resulted in big plays for the offense.

He also mentioned there were way too many penalties on the defensive side of the ball. They were the type of penalties that can get you beat on game days.

“Overall on defense, I thought we were too undisciplined. Too many penalties,” Swinney said. “A couple of them were offside. It is a different game when you are not scripting things and you are playing within the rhythm of a series. We got ACC officials. You have a true game feel and everything is live.”

There was some good on defense. Khalil Barnes and Ricardo Jones had takeaways, while the unit also got some pressure on the quarterbacks and had a couple of sacks.

“Some good, some bad and the same thing in the kicking game,” Swinney said. “We have some things we have to clean up, but we got all phases worked. We got a lot of things worked that naturally were just built into the scrimmage.”

Clemson will take Sunday off and will get back to work on Monday morning. The 14th-ranked Tigers open the season on Aug. 31 (Noon)  against top-ranked Georgia at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.