CLEMSON, SC - The Tigers had a situational scrimmage today to wrap up August camp. They will have off tomorrow for the start of classes and begin their fall practice schedule on Thursday. Dabo said the first team defense responded well after the offense dominated the scrimmage on Saturday. DK told me he was unhappy with his performance on Saturday, and he had an interception today.
There are still several Tigers banged up or out for various reasons other than the virus, including Etienne, but Frank Ladson and Joseph Ngata are slowly working their way back with green jerseys. Amari Rodgers was also back yesterday after missing 6 or 7 days, and Dabo loves the way he looks, saying he's in better shape and faster than he's ever been.
Dabo said both backup quarterbacks have looked great, and they could win with either one of them, but there's still no real separation between Taisun and DJ. That probably won't be decided until the week of the opener.
Freshman WR Ajou Ajou was having a great camp before tweaking his hamstring a few days ago, and he missed the scrimmage on Saturday. I noticed he had been fielding punts last week, but Dabo said he doesn't expect we'll see him do any of that this season. I asked him if they were looking at any other freshmen on kicks and/or punts, and although they've worked a lot of guys like Bowman, they will stick with veterans Etienne on kickoffs and DK or Amari on punts.
Finally, Dabo told us that CJ Spiller has officially joined the staff as an unpaid grad assistant! At 33, Spiller has decided that he wants to begin a coaching career, so he will be working on his Master's this fall and give Tony Elliott a hand with the running backs. Interestingly, Dabo has compared freshman RB Demarkcus Bowman to Spiller, and he referred to Pace and Bowman as "Thunder and Lightning" after the scrimmage on Saturday. We'll have to see what CJ thinks about that. Incidentally, Dabo said Bowman had his best practice of camp today, and Pace broke a long run.
The full interview is below!
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