Tigers Hold Situational Scrimmage Wednesday

CLEMSON, S.C. — The Tigers held a “situational scrimmage” on Wednesday morning in Memorial Stadium, and head coach Dabo Swinney was not impressed with what he saw. It was the 13th practice of the preseason over a 14-day period for the Tigers and the first post practice interview in which Swinney was obviously disappointed with his team’s performance. “We would not have beaten anyone today,” Swinney told the media contingent after practice. “We had way too many mistakes. It has been a good camp until today, but there were just too many errors in all phases of the game.” Swinney was disappointed in the number of penalties and other aspects of the scrimmage.

“We had situations where the offense jumped on third and one. We had a defensive back line up offsides. We had too many interference penalties on defense. We had a couple of running backs put the ball on the ground (although the offense did recover the fumbles). I am glad we didn’t play a game today.” Wednesday was the continuation of a difficult stretch of camp as the Tigers have had many physical practices.

“It looked like a lot of players hit the wall today. We have to be good mentally and physically to be successful. We will come back tonight and start correcting.” Swinney took personal responsibility for his team’s performance.

“I didn’t do a good job preparing everyone for today. I am the head coach. We didn’t do the little things you need to win a game today and that is on me.” After Wednesday’s second practice, the Tigers will have just one practice and one scrimmage over the next four days.

“I planned our practice schedule back in the summer and Thursday calls for a mental preparation day. We won’t practice tomorrow, and perhaps that is a good thing.” The scrimmage was situational in nature. That means the offense ran a first-and-10 play from its own 30, then went back to the 30 and ran another first-and-10 play. Late in the scrimmage the team worked on the two-minute drill and red-zone situations, including plays with just a second or two left in the game. Swinney did talk about a few players after practice. Tony Steward has had a very good camp so far. He and Stephone Anthony have been a good duo at linebacker. The battle at safety is also very competitive between Jayron Kearse and Jadar Johnson. There are many other strong position battles ongoing. There were some big plays turned in during the scrimmage. Redshirt freshman Ryan Carter had a 50-yard interception return for a score. Wayne Gallman, his teammate at Grayson High School in Georgia, had the longest run of the day with a 48-yard jaunt. Jordan Leggett had seven receptions and scored two touchdowns. Adam Humphries had a diving 40-yard reception in the two-minute drill.  Defensively, Vic Beasley had a big day with a pair of sacks and two other tackles for loss. Ben Boulware had a pair of sacks as well. There were no new injuries reported after the scrimmage. Cole Stoudt took the snaps with the first team, while freshman Deshaun Watson ran the second team. Mike Williams missed the scrimmage as he recovers from a shoulder injury suffered in practice on Tuesday. Daniel Rodriguez also missed with a sprained ankle suffered early this week. Other players who did not participate due to injury were Travis Blanks, Sam Cooper, Tyshon Dye, B.J. Goodson, Kellen Jones, Charone Peake and Stanton Seckinger. The team will have its final stadium scrimmage on Saturday, with Fan Day scheduled for Death Valley on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

[View the story “Scrimmage Report Aug. 13” on Storify]