Fall Camp Observations

Dabo Swinney and Clemson opened camp up to the media today in an unexpected move, and here are some of our biggest takeaways from today’s session. 

-There were multiple NFL scouts in attendance today. We saw some from the Jets, Chiefs, and Texans, and heard reports that there were more. 

-Will Shipley continues to get a good amount of work in at punt return, along with Lyn-J Dixon and Will Swinney. Shipley looks exceptionally smooth fielding punts. 

-Speaking of Shipley, we saw him run a few wheel routes during the good-on-good portion of practice. With CJ Spiller as his coach, he should become an expert on those in no time. 

-Taisun Phommachanh was moving around well and had some nice throws. He may be back sooner than anyone thinks, which would be a huge lift for depth. 

-Matt Bockhorst, last year’s left guard, got a good bit of work at center with the first team while freshman Marcus Tate played left guard. An interesting development along the line that everyone should keep their eyes on.

-During the one-on-one sessions, two players stood out to us. The first one is Ajou Ajou, who simply could not be stopped no matter who was on him. This offense had a ton of speed last year but was missing a big jump ball threat, and Ajou appears to be that guy. There were concerns that he put on too much weight, but he was still moving well and had nice burst. 

The second standout was Lannden Zanders. He’s another guy that added a decent amount of offseason weight, but it didn’t appear to be slowing him down. He matched up with EJ Williams a few times and absolutely clamped him up. During one play he actually got beat to the sideline, but recovered and ripped the ball out of Williams’ hands. 

-Jeremiah Trotter had a couple of nice plays in space, including getting a nice jump on a ball and nearly pulling it in for a pick. 

-At the end of practice, Dabo put the pressure on BT Potter by making him attempt a 41-yard field goal with two seconds to go. He told Potter that if he makes it, practice is over with no extra running. With a miss, everyone runs. Potter missed it left, then started jogging to the sideline to get ready to run. Swinney told him he doesn’t run, he has to watch the rest of the team run, and that he might want to go into witness protection. Swinney called Potter back out again after the team ran and gave him another shot, which he nailed right down the middle. Potter then ran his sprints while the team watched. 

Welcome back, football!