Swinney challenges Clemson fans who left early against Boston College

Clemson was tied with Boston College in the third quarter of the Tigers’ last home game, and some fans had seen enough.

There were noticeable holes in Clemson’s student section, as well as in other parts of the stadium in the second half, as several fans did not see the Tigers outscore Boston College 27-0 in the fourth quarter.

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney noticed and issued a challenge to the Tigers faithful for this weekend’s game against Wake Forest.

“We need our students to be there the whole game. And we need our fans to be there in the third quarter,” Swinney said during his Sunday teleconference. “We don’t need to take winning for granted. We need to show up, and let’s have the same great atmosphere as we have every single week, not be a place that shows up for GameDay or night games. Our players, we’re going to ask them to show up regardless. That’s what we do. We need to have the best atmosphere we’ve had all year this weekend.”

ANOTHER INJURED DE

Clemson had several players leave Saturday’s game against Virginia Tech, but all but one should be fine for this week.

Backup defensive end Justin Foster suffered an ankle injury against the Hokies and is not expected to practice on Monday. His status for Saturday is unknown.

Clemson already has lost two defensive ends for the season in Richard Yeargin and Logan Rudolph.

“Justin Foster’s the only one right now that I don’t think could go to practice tomorrow. Everybody else could go,” Swinney said.

The Tigers have a strong starting duo in Clelin Ferrell and Austin Bryant, and Xavier Kelly and Chris Register are making progress as backups. Kelly and Register will need to continue to play well if Foster is unable to suit up.

“I’m really proud of Xavier Kelly. I think he played 15 plays and had his best game as far as his grade. Register has had two good games in a row. I think he had 22 snaps. He’s really been pretty consistent for a couple of weeks,” Swinney said. “Just more opportunities for Xavier and Chris to be able to step up and get better and play some winning football for us.”

MULLEN DOING FINE

Cornerback Trayvon Mullen was healthy enough to play against Virginia Tech but was not needed after suffering a concussion against Boston College.

Mark Fields started at cornerback in Mullen’s absence and played well.

“He’s good, he’s ready to go and available to play. We were going to try to limit him, and if we didn’t have to play him, not play him,” Swinney said. “Guys were playing well and we didn’t have to play him, which was good, but he was available and ready to go.”

This story was originally published October 1, 2017 at 8:37 PM with the headline "Swinney challenges Clemson fans who left early against Boston College."