More than halfway through spring practice and the Clemson Tigers are caught in the thick of a quarterback battle. At this point, it appears this battle will carry over into fall camp. While there is uncertainty surrounding these quarterbacks due to their relative lack of experience, their is no questioning their talent. Let’s take a look at Clemson’s quarterback situation.
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There will be five quarterbacks on the roster vying to be the Clemson Tigers starter for the 2017 season.
The eldest of those five is rising junior, Kelly Bryant. Bryant has been taking majority of the reps with the ones during the spring, but, has yet to separate himself from the other quarterbacks.
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Next is Tucker Israel, the least talked about of the four quarterbacks. Israel has been quietly impressing the coaching staff thus far. He is unassuming physically, but, there is no doubt that he can play.
See also: Tucker Israel making noise in QB battle?
From there Clemson has a trio of freshman, Zerrick Cooper (Rs Fr), Hunter Johnson (Early enrollee) and Chase Brice who will enroll during the summer.
Clemson may not have found their starter just yet, however, the Tigers have multiple options. If co-offensive coordinators, Jeff Scott and Tony Elliott want to run a more zone-read based offense they have two mobile quarterbacks in Zerrick Cooper and Kelly Bryant. Should Scott and Elliott decide they want to run more of an arial attack, they have pocket passers in Tucker Israel, Hunter Johnson and Chase Brice.
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The problems will not start until one of those five is named the starter. After all, only one quarterback can play at a time. With three freshman quarterbacks on the roster there is a good chance that at least one of them decides to transfer elsewhere for a better opportunity at playing time.
Add in the fact that Clemson brings in Trevor Lawrence, the No.1 quarterback prospect in the country in the 2018 recruiting class, the following season and you’ve got yourself quite the pickle.
In the modern world of college football, players do not want to sit and wait their turn to play. While there is nothing wrong with that way of thinking, college coaches have to understand that by recruiting at a high level they are inevitably going to experience attrition.
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At the end of the day it is better to have five players talented enough to be your starting quarterback than none.