Clemson’s Dabo Swinney Looking for More Consistency as Battle for Starting Center Continues

One of the biggest questions coming into fall camp centered on the Clemson offensive line. One of the biggest coming out of fall camp seems to be who will start at center.

For most of the offseason, many have assumed that Hunter Rayburn would be that guy. However, as camp opened it was Mason Trotter and Matt Bockhost getting most of the first team reps.

With fall camp set to wrap up with a scrimmage on Thursday, head coach Dabo Swinney is still looking for one thing before deciding on a starter.

“All of them have done some good things, the biggest thing is consistency,” Dabo Swinney said after Tuesday’s practice.

Swinney is confident that all three players are capable of getting the job done, from both a physical and mental standpoint, but he is still looking for that one guy to step up and grab the bull by the horns. And there’s one area in particular that he needs to see some improvement in.

“Consistency with our snaps, that’s the area we’ve got to make some strides in,” Swinney said. “You’ve got to be 100 percent, 99.99999 percent when it comes to the (center-quarterback) exchange. So, that’s an area that I think we’ve got to clean up as we really hone in coming out of camp here.”

The ideal situation would have been Rayburn being ready, but that just doesn’t appear to be the case. The question then becomes do the coaches go with the undersized Trotter, or does Bockhorst slide over from guard and take over at center.

Swinney insists all three have done some good things throughout fall camp, but at the end of the day, he still needs to see more.

“All those guys have done a good job.”