Dabo Swinney says Clemson freshman is ‘special’ after losing QB1 battle

Christopher Vizzina will open the season as Clemson’s starting quarterback, but Dabo Swinney made it clear the Tigers may not have to wait long to see freshman Tait Reynolds get his opportunity.

Vizzina emerged from fall camp with the QB1 job after providing the steadier option, while Reynolds had a handful of costly mistakes that ultimately kept him from winning the competition.

That did little to change Swinney’s opinion of the freshman’s future.

“You got to give Tait credit for that,” Swinney said. “This kid’s special now. He’s a different dude. And he ain’t going away. So it just is what it is.”

Reynolds flashed enough throughout camp to make the decision interesting, but Swinney pointed to a couple of rough practices in which the freshman put the football in danger.

“Just bad decisions,” Swinney said. “Put the ball in jeopardy. Just a couple of things that you just, like, okay, no, that can’t happen. You can punt there. That’s going to cost you a game. But it was just a couple of those days. Other than that, he really, and I thought he kind of reset after a couple of those days and kind of got locked back in. I mean, there’s a lot of install. There’s a lot going on in fall camp, but he did a nice job.”

What continues to excite Clemson’s staff is Reynolds’ physical ceiling.

“I mean, he’s big. He can fly. And he’s got a rocket launcher,” Swinney said. “So really not anything. He’s probably got every record in the weight room for quarterbacks in the history of our school as a true freshman. He’s just very, very gifted. And he’s obviously a two-sport star. Not a two-sport good player. He’s a two-sport star.”

Vizzina will get the start against LSU, but that does not necessarily mean Reynolds will spend the entire night watching from the sideline.

“So again, he’s earned the opportunity to play somewhere along the way,” Swinney said. “Again, I’m not going to guarantee he’s going to play, but probably likely that he’s going to play. Because I do think maybe there are certain things, again, that show up on game day that are just hard to see at practice, especially at the quarterback position.”

For now, Clemson has its starter. Reynolds, however, appears to have done enough to ensure the Tigers will keep looking for opportunities to get their talented freshman quarterback onto the field.

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This article originally appeared on Clemson Wire: Dabo Swinney says Clemson freshman is ‘special’ after losing QB1 battle