Why Clemson football isn’t bringing a quarterback to ACC media days this year
When Clemson football makes the preseason media rounds at ACC Kickoff in Charlotte on Thursday, they’ll do it without a quarterback.
Although 12 of 17 ACC teams are bringing a QB to the league’s kickoff event, the Tigers are one of five teams that aren’t. It’s also the first time since 2019 that Clemson isn’t bringing a quarterback to Charlotte as a player representative.
That decision from coach Dabo Swinney turned some heads, primarily because it could indicate Christopher Vizzina and Tait Reynolds are still legitimately competing for the starting quarterback job as 2026 fall camp nears.
But Swinney — who had final say on the selections — doesn’t think it’s a big deal.
“Is there a lot being made of that?” he joked Tuesday. “I don’t even know. First I’ve heard of it. ... I don’t really worry about all that stuff.”
Clemson is taking senior tight end Olsen Patt-Henry, senior defensive end Will Heldt and junior linebacker Sammy Brown to Thursday’s media blitz in Charlotte.
Notably missing from the group is Vizzina, a redshirt junior quarterback widely viewed as the clubhouse leader to succeed longtime starter Cade Klubnik.
Vizzina will open fall camp as Clemson’s QB1, offensive coordinator Chad Morris said Tuesday, but the team hasn’t explicitly named him the starter for Week 1 at LSU.
Vizzina remains in competition with Reynolds, an intriguing true freshman quarterback from Arizona who made strides in spring practice and quickly beat out Trent Pearman and Chris Denson. He’ll start fall camp as a clear QB2.
Dabo explains ACC Kickoff player selection logic
Speaking Tuesday at Clemson’s on-campus media day, Swinney said he picked the players who’d join him at ACC Kickoff like he always does. He started with a pool of senior players on offense and defense and picked one for each unit.
For offense, he picked Patt-Henry, Clemson’s starting tight end. For defense, he picked Heldt, a second-year Purdue transfer who had 7.5 sacks last season.
For his third choice, Swinney said the ACC sent Clemson a handful of player requests and he picked a player from that pool: Brown, a first-team All-ACC linebacker.
“I’ve always taken our seniors, No. 1,” Swinney said. “That’s where I start. Then they get to pick somebody. They all wanted Sammy Brown, so that’s kind of how it goes. There were a couple other names they threw out there.”
Swinney said the ACC sent football communications director Ross Taylor requests for which players they’d like Clemson to consider for ACC Kickoff, Taylor showed him the list and he decided on a third player from there.
Swinney didn’t say if the ACC requested Vizzina.
In 2024 and 2025, the ACC allowed schools to bring up to four players. This year, the conference cut the number back down to three. The other four teams not bringing a quarterback to 2026 ACC Kickoff are Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Duke and UNC.
Swinney’s preference for bringing seniors to the league’s media event has been a topic in the past. In 2019, Clemson brought offensive lineman John Simpson to ACC Kickoff instead of sophomore star quarterback Trevor Lawrence. Simpson jokingly wore a blond wig that day to mimic Lawrence’s hair.
“(Taylor) tells me who they (the ACC) want, and there’s three or four guys they list, and I’m like, ‘All right, we’ll take Sammy,’” Swinney said of his 2026 selections. “So it’s really not complicated. Not anything more than that.”
This story was originally published July 14, 2026 at 2:34 PM.
