The Clemson football team will close the book on fall camp and begin to focus on game installation for the season-opening matchup against the Georgia Bulldogs beginning next week.
The Tigers have now gone through three weeks of preseason camp and have gotten by relatively healthy through those sessions.
Now, as fall camp ends and game prep begins, here’s a look at three growing concerns that Clemson still must answer.
Three growing concerns for Clemson football coming out of fall camp 2021
1. The interior offensive line
The interior offensive line has been, and will continue to be, the biggest concern heading into the 2021 season for the Tigers.
Clemson struggled mightily along the interior offensive line last season and the Tigers are now looking to replace center Cade Stewart for this season.
Matt Bockhorst– who started at guard last season– has received most of the snaps with the first-team with freshman Marcus Tate taking snaps at LG. When Bockhorst has moved over to guard, it has been Mason Trotter and Hunter Rayburn taking the reps with the first-team.
So far, the search to find a consistent hand has left much to be desired.
"“The biggest thing is consistency,” Swinney said. “I think all of them physically can get the job done, and I think all three mentally can get the job done. But consistency with our snaps, that’s the area we’ve got to make some strides in. You’ve got to be 100 percent, 99.99999 percent when it comes to the C-Q exchange. So, that’s an area that I think we’ve got to clean up as we really hone in coming out of camp here. But all those guys have done a good job.”"
Hearing about concerns of consistency at center is simply something you don’t want to hear. It is reminiscent of that 2014 game against Florida State when a single snap basically cost the Tigers the game.
If this was a different season, you’d have time to work those things out, but this year starts with Georgia right off-the-bat and you’ve got to have your best foot forward.
Even if the best guys get on the field, there are still concerns because both Bockhorst and RG Will Putnam were pushed around at times last season. That entire interior offensive line has to be more physical and they’ve got to be more consistent. There’s really no other way around it.