Clemson football: 3 reasons Team White beats Team Orange

The Clemson football team will host the annual Orange & White spring game this Saturday afternoon in Death Valley.

19,000 Clemson fans will be in attendance for the glorified scrimmage and there’s no doubt that there will be excitement among the fan base to see some of the new faces and to watch certain position groups where battles are heating up.

As we prepare for this final practice of the spring, let’s take a look at who might see come out victorious. In the end, it’s going to be Clemson football who wins but there is at least some conditioning incentives on the line for the team that wins the scrimmage.

Three reasons we see Team White come away with the win during the Clemson football spring game

No. 1: More experienced RB room

If you haven’t seen the full roster or seen the major highlighted points, one position we are looking at extremely close is running back. We’ll see Will Shipley, Kobe Pace and Michel Dukes as the running backs for Team Orange.

While it will be exciting to see those guys- and they’ve all reportedly had great springs, especially Shipley and Pace- it’s Team White that possesses the more experienced running back room.

We’ll see Lyn-J Dixon, Phil Mafah, Chez Mellusi and Darien Rencher all get time in the backfield Saturday afternoon.

No. 2: The lines of scrimmage favor Team White

If you want a reason more than anything that Team White wins, it’s because of the advantage it possesses at the lines of scrimmage.

While Team Orange certainly has some playmakers- like Myles Murphy and Tyler Davis on the DL and Jordan McFadden on the OL- it’s Team White that has the deeper stable of players along the lines of scrimmage, with starter-level players like Bryan Bresee, Xavier Thomas, Justin Mascoll, Walker Parks, Will Putnam and Hunter Rayburn.

No. 3: D.J. Uiagalelei likely sits the second half

If you look at both teams top-to-bottom, you’d have to give the advantage to Team Orange, but there’s an aspect of this scrimmage that favors Team White: Just how long does D.J. Uiagalelei play?

The quarterbacks aren’t live so there isn’t much worry about getting injured, but are the Tigers really going to show their entire hand by letting Uiagalelei play the whole scrimmage? It’s not likely.

We expect him to play the first two quarters and then for it to be Taisun Phommachanh vs. Hunter Helms for the second half.