Clemson Tigers: Dabo Swinney Unsure About Starting QB After Week 1 Loss
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The Clemson Tigers had a handful of question marks heading into the 2026 season, but none was as glaring as the quarterback position. After seeing Cade Klubnik enter the 2026 NFL Draft, coach Dabo Swinney elected not to get a quarterback out of the NCAA Transfer Portal and instead kept his options in-house.
Christopher Vizzina was last season’s backup quarterback, and incoming freshman Tait Reynolds was the other player vying for the starting quarterback position. However, it appears things can be rocky after just one game. Let’s take a deeper dive into what Dabo Swinney had to say about Clemson’s quarterbacks after Week 1.
Dabo Swinney is unsure about starting quarterback for Clemson’s Week 2 game
Following the team’s 51-10 loss to the LSU Tigers, there were a lot of questions about why this happened. Clemson’s offense struggled passing the football as starting quarterback Christopher Vizzina completed 10 of 16 passes for 83 yards and an interception. Backup Tait Reynolds would also see some action, completing 4 of 6 passes for 22 yards. Following the game, coach Dabo Swinney was asked about who will be the starting quarterback for next week’s game, and he responded with the following:
“I don’t know. Again, we’ve got to watch the tape and evaluate and we’ll go from there… That’s what I said coming into it. That’s why I said, we didn’t want to guarantee (Reynolds) would play, but it was pretty likely he was going to play So we needed to play games. Again, I wish we had a game or two where you can work the kinks out, but thats not the stick we drew. We’ve got some stuff on tape now, we’ve got some things in real live games that we can evaluate, and we’ll go from there.”
Ahead of the game, it was clear the quarterback situation was something Dabo Swinney was still trying to figure out. He appeared on The Stephen A. Smith Show on Mad Dog Sports Radio and said the following about the quarterback battle:
“The quarterback is the big question. I mean, you know, and we’re all gonna see it in real time. Chris [Vizzina] is gonna be our starter, and he earned the job and he won it, but we have another kid [Reynolds] that’s right there. And we’re just, Stephen A., as you know, we don’t get preseason games. We’re the only level of football from Pee Wee to NFL where you don’t get to go and get some live preseason games. So our live preseason game is in Baton Rouge versus LSU. I’ve got confidence in these guys.”
The starting quarterback situation between Chris Vizzina and Tait Reynolds is going to be something to keep an eye on throughout the season. It will be intriguing to see if one of them will be able to showcase their skills and take a firm grip on the Clemson Tigers’ starting quarterback battle.
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