With two weeks left before its opener against Georgia Tech, Clemson is transitioning from preseason camp to game prep. Yet the Yellow Jackets aren’t the only opponent to which the Tigers are dedicating time.
Clemson will have the national stage to itself on Labor Day night when it meets Tech in primetime at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, but playing on a Monday means the Tigers will have a short week to prepare for its home opener against Furman on Sept. 10. So Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said his team will be dedicating some periods during practice early this week to getting a head start on familiarizing themselves with the in-state FCS program.
“We’ll spend Sunday and (today) putting in a little bit of work on them because we play Labor Day night,” Swinney said. “That’s Saturday for us, but it’s Monday for the rest of the world. When we roll in here at 4:30 in the morning and you wake up the next day, it’s Tuesday. And you play again Saturday, so it’s a really tough challenge.
“We’ve done all of our preliminary work as coaches, but we need to really prepare the team and get a good foundation so that when we come in on Tuesday, they’re not starting from Ground Zero. We need to have some type of foundation and working knowledge.”
The players had Friday and Saturday off before resuming practice Sunday. Swinney said today’s morning practice will be a “double day.”
“There will be some live (team) work but also doing some game prep,” Swinney said. “Then Tuesday we’ll go all Georgia Tech.”
Wednesday is the first day of the fall semester at Clemson, effectively ending camp. At that point, the NCAA’s 20-hour rule, which limits in-season sports to a maximum of 20 hours of team-related activity each week, will be in effect. And final roster decisions will be pending.
“Once you get on the clock on Wednesday, you can’t rep three groups,” Swinney said. “You’ve just got to make do with the time you have. But we’ve got a good plan for htat, and we have for a long time. It just changes how you practice.”