The first scrimmage of Clemson’s fall camp over the weekend wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing display from the offense.
By all accounts, the Tigers’ veteran defense had a lot to do with that, but the offense didn’t exactly do itself many favors. Specifically, head coach Dabo Swinney and offensive coordinator lamented a number of penalties that reached double digits and botched snaps that left the unit playing behind the chains far too often.
In Clemson’s second and final scrimmage Thursday, the offense cleaned up its act.
“Much better,” Swinney said. “I think we went from 10 penalties to two, and we had no bad snaps. We had a couple with our third group, our Pride group. But the guys that we know we’re going to count on to go play in a couple of weeks, they were excellent today. Right on point and right where they needed to be.”
Highlighted by the return of star receiver Justyn Ross, who took live hits for the first time since undergoing corrective spinal fusion surgery earlier this year, the offense produced its share of explosive plays. Ross was in on some of those. Fellow wideout Joseph Ngata was held out again with a hamstring injury, but Swinney said freshman receiver Dacari Collins had a “big play.” Even the tailbacks ripped off some runs that impressed their head coach.
Outside of a dropped pass here and there, Swinney said he was largely pleased with the offense’s execution as a whole.
“Just wanted to see us improve,” Swinney said. “You get two scrimmages, and I thought the guys that needed to improve, they did just that. And the guys that we wanted to see some consistency from, I think we saw that as well.”
Most importantly, Swinney said his team got out of its last full day of contact without any significant injuries popping up.
“It’s been 16 straight days we’ve been going. We’ve gotten a lot done,” Swinney said. “These next couple of days for us is about really just kind of mentally and physically resetting, recharging and refueling a little bit. We’ll come back Sunday afternoon and get back up.”
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