Clemson Football Practice Report – August 22

Aug. 22, 2011

By Will Vandervort, IPTAY Media

CLEMSON, SC – DeAndre Hopkins says football camp has been one of the hardest he has experienced during his football career.

The reason – Chad Morris’ new offense.

“It is way more grueling, especially with the offense that we have,” Hopkins said. “It is fast paced. Every period is pretty much two-minute (offense) for us. `There is no let’s practice the two-minute offense.’ Every period is that way for us. It is fast paced and guys are conditioned. We can go out and play tomorrow.”

Clemson Head Coach Dabo Swinney is glad to hear that his players are tired. The Tigers’ ended their last two-a-day practice of fall camp Monday with a two-hour session in the morning and another at night. Clemson will practice again Tuesday morning before getting a much needed day off on Wednesday thanks to the first day of classes.

“They are tired and they should be,” the Clemson coach said. “I would be disappointed if they were fresh right now. That’s camp and what it is supposed to be. Everyone is mentally and physically fatigued this time of the year.”

Swinney said his team will have a light practice tonight before going pretty hard again in the morning. After Wednesday’s day off, they will practice again Thursday, then will have a walk-through game-day run called “The Beanie Bowl” on Friday. The Beanie Bowl is when the coaches and players practice everything from pregame meal to game day protocol to running down the hill to practice taking an intentional safety.

The team will not practice on Saturday, but will hold meetings before having another day off come Sunday.

“That’s all part of the plan in bringing (their legs) back,” Swinney said. “They will be bouncing around here by the end of the week. But, right now they are tired and they should be.”

As for practice itself, the Tigers practiced in what Swinney said was, “the second hottest day of camp.”

“We have been pretty fortunate with the weather, but today was one of the top two, and we needed that,” he said.

The only other thing Swinney really spoke about Monday was his disappointment in the second-team offensive line during camp.

“I’m pretty disappointed in some of those guys that are in a backup role right now,” he said. “Again, I know they are young and we will have to count on a lot of young guys. I’m just a little disappointed in some of their preparation and overall commitment.

“But, that’s why they call us `Coach.’ We have to get that out of them and we will.”

With that said, though, Swinney says he does have a lot of confidence in Mason Cloy. Ryan Norton, a freshman from Mauldin, is also someone Swinney commented on in a positive manner after practice.

Clemson got quite a few players back to practice on Monday. Brandon Thompson, Mike Bellamy and Antoine McClain were all back after missing the scrimmage on Saturday. McClain missed the scrimmage due to a death in his family.

Demont Buice (foot), Joe Gore (knee) and Sammy Watkins (hip) were the only three players out of practice on Monday morning.