There is no question that last season was a disappointment for the Tigers. Dabo Swinney had the worst season of his tenure since 2010. Clemson needs a fix in 2026.
There are five things that need to happen that will contribute to a Clemson turnaround this fall.
Tait Reynolds pushes Christopher Vizzina
When Tait Reynolds committed to Clemson, the hope was that he’d be able to insert himself into any quarterback competition that’ll happen his first year. We knew that the position was going to have question marks around it with Cade Klubnik moving on to the NFL.
Dabo Swinney has tabbed Christopher Vizzina as the next man for the job since the 2024 season. In his minimal playing time over the last two years, Vizzina has not shown much for fans to get excited about.
Although, the only start of his career so far was his best performance in a Clemson uniform. He threw for 317 yards and three touchdowns against SMU. Still, it was not an impressive enough showing to get the fanbase completely behind Vizzina. Especially when he went 9/15 passing for just 52 yards and a touchdown in his next outing.
This prompted Swinney to open up the competition at quarterback a bit more. He still wasn’t going to bring in someone more experienced from the portal though. Most of us believed this would lead to Chris Denson challenging Vizzina for the starting job as we approached fall camp. It looked like an easy conclusion to arrive at after his breakout game against Furman late in the season.
Instead, the competition led to Denson losing out on the back-up role to Reynolds, who looked even better than predicted this spring. Swinney has claimed in recent interviews that the spring competition was really to see who would take over the number two spot.
He’s also been consistent all offseason in saying Vizzina’s spot is not completely secure from the other signal callers on the roster. Swinney mentioned Reynolds multiple times this offseason as the guy who has a chance to really compete with Vizzina in fall camp.
In order for the Clemson offense to improve, the quarterback play has to get better. While it's not the ideal scenario for a freshman quarterback to have such a huge role so early, Reynolds has to be the reason the position gets better. Whether it's because he pushes Vizzina to his absolute limit and gets him to compete at his best, or Reynolds just earns the job. Either way Reynolds will be the catalyst for the quarterback play improving.
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