Dabo Swinney talks Clemson injuries for showdown at South Carolina
Clemson appears to be getting healthy at just the right time.
The Tigers have had several key players injured for the past several weeks, but Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said during his Sunday teleconference that he is hopeful that most everyone will be full go against South Carolina on Saturday.
Defensive starters Dexter Lawrence, Kendall Joseph and Tre Lamar did not play against The Citadel, while cornerback Mark Fields dressed but also did not play in the game.
Cornerback Marcus Edmond played against the Bulldogs for the first time since being injured in Week 2 against Auburn, while fellow cornerback Ryan Carter also played against The Citadel after suffering an apparent concussion the previous week against Florida State.
“We obviously held a couple guys here the last week or so, couple weeks, and we’re excited about hopefully getting everybody back out there tomorrow,” Swinney said. “We’ll see exactly where we are in the morning, but I anticipate having a really good group. We’ve been down in the secondary, we’ve been down in the d-line, we’ve been down at linebacker and hopefully we’re going to have most of them, if not everybody, back and ready to go.”
Left tackle Mitch Hyatt also did not dress against The Citadel but is expected to be fine for Saturday’s game in Columbia.
Backup tackle Tremayne Anchrum got the start with Hyatt out.
“Mitch is doing all right. He’s just battling a little injury, but he should be good to go tomorrow,” Swinney said. “We just wanted to hold him another week. And Tremayne played well, played really well. He’s played well for us all year. He’s just one of those guys. ... He’s done a good job for us.”
BACKUP QBS HAVE SUCCESS
Backup quarterbacks Hunter Johnson and Zerrick Cooper both had success against The Citadel.
Johnson completed 7 of 8 passes for 144 yards and a touchdown, while Cooper finished 7 for 11 passing for 105 yards and a score.
Starting quarterback Kelly Bryant also played well as the Tigers had three quarterbacks top the 100-yard passing mark for the first time in school history.
“It’s always good any time you get the opportunity to play guys, especially when you can play quarterbacks. That experience is so valuable, and it’s also a critical part of kind of just evaluating those guys because they’re not live in practice every day,” Swinney said. “I thought they both made some big plays. I thought Hunter really had a very clean game execution-wise. ... I was pleased with both of them.”
This story was originally published November 19, 2017 at 8:24 PM with the headline "Dabo Swinney talks Clemson injuries for showdown at South Carolina."