Paul Finebaum criticizes Dabo Swinney's decision to prop up Christopher Vizzina at QB

All signs point toward Christopher Vizzina winning the Clemson starting quarterback job out of fall camp. However, he has not done enough this summer to prevent talented freshman Tait Reynolds from eventually overtaking him. While Greg McElroy expects that to happen eventually, his ESPN colleague Paul Finebaum wishes Dabo Swinney had gotten another quarterback out of the portal.

Finebaum said as much during his appearance on SportsCenter Monday. Players like Josh Hoover and Sam Leavitt were both available. "I would like to be nice to Christopher this morning, but he was a barely serviceable backup [against] SMU," Finebaum said. "That is not the guy that big-time programs are supposed to go out and get. Hoover to Indiana. Leavitt to LSU. That's what Dabo needed."

Vizzina played sparingly at Clemson the last few years after having served as Cade Klubnik's backup. While he did throw for 317 yards and three touchdowns versus SMU last fall, it was still an 11-point home loss to the Tigers for Clemson. So far in his career, Vizzina has 596 passing yards and four touchdowns over 14 games in the last three years. His inexperience has national pundits concerned.

It may be why FanDuel Sportsbook has No. 11 LSU laying a sizable 10.5 points on unranked Clemson.

Paul Finebaum wishes Clemson would have gotten a QB out of the portal

Even if Finebaum is not yet a Reynolds truther, his logic behind not backing Vizzina as Clemson's long-term solution at starting quarterback is sound. Vizzina is largely unproven, with only that SMU game on his resume. The fact that he spent the last three years backing up Klubnik may not play in his favor either. Klubnik was quite talented, but he was so up-and-down during his college career.

While Reynolds may end up being Clemson's future quarterback, Vizzina does not breed confidence as the team's leader of the present. Fortunately, we have seen Swinney walk this tightrope before at the quarterback position. As were the cases with Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence, they were too talented to keep on the bench for long as true freshmen. This might be Swinney's plan all along.

However, with what is at stake for this season coming in, it probably would have served Swinney and the rest of his Clemson staff to at least consider bringing in a quarterback by way of the transfer portal. Not to say Hoover or Leavitt would have been all that interested in coming to Clemson, but there may have been a player who was better equipped to help Clemson right away than Vizzina is.

Truth be told, a transfer portal quarterback addition would not have silenced Finebaum from his rampant Clemson criticism anyway. As long as Swinney is leading the team, Finebaum will find a way to discredit everything this program has achieved before. Haters are going to hate. That is in their nature, just like Swinney being a relative newcomer to the idea of what the transfer portal can provide.

Even if Finebaum can't stand it, he has to come to grips with Vizzina starting for Clemson in Week 1.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

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