Clemson first scrimmage notes

Clemson held their first scrimmage of the fall this past weekend. As you might expect, Dabo Swinney is happy with his offense:

“I liked the tempo that was set by the offense at the outset. The first-team offense went right down the field (against the first-team defense) and scored a touchdown on the first drive. Then the defense came back strong and at the end of practice won the short-yardage situations we scripted. The defense dominated the goal-line situations."

Cole Stoudt, the starting QB coming out of spring who is Tajh Boyd, had two passing TDs. His backup Deshaun Watson, had two as well. Swinney singled out TE Jordan Liggett for his play.

On defense, Swinney made a point of praising goal line situations and that they didn't allow a rushing TD in those situations.

Clemson replaces plenty on offense, so it bears watching how Chad Morris builds the offense to utilize Stoudt, who is less mobile than Boyd and doesn't have Sammy Watkins and Martavis Bryant to throw to. Stoudt threw for something like 4000 yards his senior year of HS, and he's gotten some meaningful snaps over the past three years.

In that way, Stoudt, a red shirt senior, and Hutson Mason are mirror images of each other, both replacing record setting multi-year starters, and both waiting their turn to take the helm of the offense. The difference is Morris' schemes have always relied on the QB to be both accurate and quick with his reads on the fly. Bobo's schemes are much more reliant on pre-set plays and functional utility. Plus, we have four RBs that would start for Clemson this year, which is awesome for my psyche.

The down side is that our young DB corp and LBs will be tested early and often in pass protection, which is terrible for my psyche.
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