Friday's Practice via Clemson Insider.
- Dabo on the OL problems we now face....AGAIN.
"I do feel really good about the first five, I feel very good about that first group, and we had Mason Cloy back in a green jersey and he did a little team work today. He started a year-and-a-half for us. Those six we can line up and play with.
"Then we have a guy like Ben Ramsey – I am confident in him as far as knowing what to do, but he has been injured a little bit, and we need to get him back. Wilson was a veteran guy, and this puts more pressure on Brandon Thomas, Tyler Fowler and Phillip Price. And then we have Kalon Davis that can do some things. We are putting a lot of pressure on those guys, and right now they are not there yet."
Yes 6, so no more than before. The 5 that play now plus Cloy. Ben Ramsey doesn't have any talent, if he ends up at Center we're dead in the water. Tyler Fowler and Price? Give me a fuckin break. A knee injury (not major) to Ramsey forced them to move Matt Sanders from LG to C. Dalton Freeman did get gimpy today in the scrimmage but played through it. If we lost him Cloy would immediately step in at 1-C, but I think about the best you can hope for is for Sanders to get snaps and learn enough to be at least a helper up front.
Kalon Davis is now getting most snaps at 2-LG. You would think that with his size (350lbs, down from 368), if he either uses his hands well or moves his feet well, that he'd at least be in someone's way long enough to give us a chance. I wish we could redshirt him but it appears that unless Beasley is all-star caliber, we won't be able to do so. One of the two will have to play some, and its still possible that both avoid and with Davis gettin all these snaps now he'll have a leg up on Beasley. Ideally you want to RS all incoming OL. I have been down on Kalon because of his lack of mobility in film and this ridiculous bulk, but one encouraging thing is that he's a kid who graduated early and the coaches are impressed with his football smarts. Maybe he can pick up the information despite his bumbling idiot coach.
Dabo:"He's a smart guy, which helps, he's really a guy that kind of understands some football, was well coached in high school. He's got a pretty good foundation. That's probably been the most pleasant surprise we've had in dealing with him is, he's smart. He can get things. So now it's just a matter of him being able to execute those things with good technique and with great effort."
Davis:
"It's never easy, because we're putting in new stuff every day and the defense is changing up every day. But I feel like I'm getting more comfortable with the system. I feel like I'm able to impact the plays a little bit more and contribute to my team a little more. Right now, it's just trying to handle the speed of the game. Ever since I got here, everything's gotten a little faster and a little tougher. It's just being able to adapt to the college game."
We are playing with fire up front. We lose the wrong guy and you should prepare yourself for another mediocre season.
In Today's morning scrimmage, Kyle Parker was held out because of tightness in his back, and will miss the next two baseball games. Boyd took most of the snaps and Wade played as the 3-QB. I'm anxious to see what Boyd can do with the ball next weekend.
After struggling to run the two-minute drill last Friday, Swinney said Boyd made significant strides in that area, running the hurry-up offense efficiently.
"I'm starting to get a little more familiar with the offense," Boyd said.
Offensive coordinator Billy Napier said Boyd is learning an even greater sense of attention to detail, what Boyd calls "an elbow (placement) here or there … small things."
Boyd is also learning to not force big plays. In Saturday's scrimmage, Boyd missed a wide-open checkdown to Chad Diehl, forcing a pass to Dwayne Allen that fell incomplete.
"Some of that stuff in high school you can't do here, going up for the big play instead of hitting those checkdowns," Boyd said. "It's something I have to overcome every day. I'm getting better."
Again, the offense looks inconsistent by all accounts, but that's still to be expected. The running game was improved, and the right side of the OL did better (hallelujah). I generally look for a good consistent drive or two in the 2nd scrimmage and then have it somewhat together by the Spring Game, at least enough to score some points in non-scripted redzone situations. Had Parker been in, that would've been the outcome I believe.
Brandon Maye worked at Will and Mike today, and Tig Willard at Will exclusively, and coaches are giving Willard plenty of praise for his play so far this spring. Willard was the one of the group that I was highest on coming in, so I'm hopeful that the former 4-star will not turn out like Josh Miller did.
Gilchrist played the Nickel but as I said last week this is not in stone and he'll likely end up at Corner. Clemson is still showing a mostly Nickel D, so they are using Gilchrist as a Weak Safety.