Dabo Swinney knows exactly what his teams priorities are as the Tigers get set to open spring practice.
Talking to Mark Packer on Sirius XM, the Clemson head coach talked about some of the things they have to work on going into spring practice which is scheduled to open up the end of this month. Swinney made it clear that they have certain things that have to be taken care of right away.
“First of all, we’ve got to get everybody in the right spot,” Swinney said to Mark Packer on Sirius XM. “We’ve got 118 guys going through spring practice. We have every player on the roster, except seven of these signees are coming this summer, 12 of them are already here. So it’s evaluation, it’s development, it’s getting guys in the right position. It’s the non-football stuff. It’s the development of leadership. It’s chemistry. It’s the morale of your team. It’s the position and technique and fundamentals and all of those things.”
Swinney then went into what they have to work on as far as on the field stuff and a position that many were concerned with as the season went along.
“Football-wise, positionally, it’s our offensive line,” Swinney said. “We have a really young group. I think we’ve got 16 guys on scholarship and 13 of them are freshmen and sophomores. We’ve got one senior in Matt Bockhorst, and we’ve got a couple of juniors, and the rest of those guys are freshmen and sophomores. We were really, really young last year, so it’s taking a big step with that group.”
Last season Clemson experienced more injuries than they generally have in this recent run. This was on both sides of the ball. Guys like Tyler Davis, Jake Venables, Xavier Thomas, and Justin Foster on defense and Trevor Lawrence, Justyn Ross, Joseph Ngata, and Frank Ladson Jr on the offensive side of the ball. With that being said, it’s not hard to figure out what Swinney feels is the next thing that is needed going into spring.
“Then getting healthy, getting our guys healthy,” Swinney said. “I think we’ve got like 12 of the top 14 guys that started for us on defense are back, so really getting that defensive line. You know, getting a guy like Xavier Thomas back going full speed, Justin Foster is working his way back. He’s trending in a positive way. I’m excited about that.”
