Five storylines for Clemson football fans to watch as fall camp gets underway
The Clemson football team is officially in the midst of starting up fall camp and, although there are many concerns and doubts about a season being played the Tigers are moving forward and preparing to compete.
As we progress through fall camp, there are plenty of questions that Clemson football fans will want answered, pertaining to both on-the-field and off-the-field subjects.
Here are five major storylines for Clemson football fans to watch as we progress through fall camp.
5. Potential Opt Outs
We have to start off our list with some off-the-field storylines that will be gaining tons of attention.
We’ve already seen some of the top players in College Football opt out of the 2020 season and that’s only expected to amplify as we get into the midst of fall practice.
Clemson football players like Trevor Lawrence, Travis Etienne, Amari Rodgers, Jackson Carman and others are all Tigers to watch.
We’ve seen several programs with players who have elected not to play and we shouldn’t expect that Clemson will be immune to those opt outs, either.
4. Possible shutdowns, bumps in the road
We have to talk about one more off-the-field subject before getting into the on-the-field stuff and that’s possible shutdowns and bumps in the road.
This doesn’t just apply to Clemson football, but to teams across the ACC and the country.
If we start with preseason practice and then begin seeing programs shut things down a week or two into their camp, that doesn’t bode well for getting the season off the ground. It’s going to be important to have solid testing protocols in place and to have precautions ready so that practices aren’t shut down and the season isn’t postponed or eventually canceled due to outbreaks in camp.
It’s certainly easier said than done.
3. Emerging leadership
One of the intriguing parts of fall camp every year is finding out who the new leaders are going to be.
Who are we going to see step up as a vocal leader on the offensive line following the loss of four starters? Can Trevor Lawrence became the No. 1 leader on the offense? Defensively, can we see players like James Skalski, Derion Kendrick and Nolan Turner assume roles of leadership following the departure of K’Von Wallace, Isaiah Simmons and Tanner Muse?
It’s absolutely imperative that this team has leadership and much of that is developed in summer workouts. It will be interesting to see who those leaders are, though, as the Tigers take the field to begin practice.
2. Position Battles
There are several intriguing position battles taking place that we’ll be keeping our eyes on. Here’s a few:
- Back-Up QB
- Wide receivers
- Offensive Line and depth behind the starters
- Cornerback opposite-side of Derion Kendrick
- Safety position
- Defensive line order and hierarchy
- Running back depth chart
That’s basically almost every position that we’ll have some kind of competition happening. It will be interesting to see who is able to win those position battles and how that comes into play during the 2020 season, where everyone on the roster could be given major opportunities to shine at some point in the year.
1. How does the team handle distractions?
We’ve always listed distractions as one intriguing portion of the preseason for Clemson football, but this year it’s for a whole different reason.
We can all agree that there are more distractions- mostly bad- than ever before and that’s going to weigh on every single College Football team across America. The question will be who can overcome those things.
From how many fans will be in the stands to discussions about health & safety concerns to demands being made by players and so much more, we’re going to see distractions weigh heavily on this Clemson football team.
The key will be seeing if this team can block out some of those outside voices while wisely raising their own concerns and working together to play the safest and best season possible.