With the opener at Georgia Tech two weeks away, Clemson is transitioning from preseason camp to game preparation. However, the Yellow Jackets aren’t the only opponent the Tigers are giving time to.
Clemson will have a national stage on Labor Day night when it meets Tech at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, but playing on a Monday means the Tigers will have a short week to prepare for their September opener against Furman. 10. So Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said his team will spend some practice time earlier this week getting familiar with an in-state FCS program.
“Since we play Labor Day night, we’ll spend Sunday and (today) working on them a little bit,” Swinney said. “It’s Saturday for us, but it’s Monday for the rest of the world. When we get in here at 4:30 in the morning and you wake up the next day, it’s Tuesday. And they play again on Saturday, so it’s a very tough challenge.
We have done all our preparatory work as coaches, but we have to prepare the team properly and create a good foundation. When we go in on Tuesday, they are not starting from ground zero. We should have some kind of foundation and working knowledge.
The players had Friday and Saturday off before resuming training on Sunday. Sweeney said today’s morning practice will be a “double day.”
“There will be live (team) work but also some pregame preparation,” Swinney said. “Then we go all Georgia Tech on Tuesday.”
Wednesday is the first day of the fall semester at Clemson, and it marks the end of camp. At that time, the NCAA’s 20-hour rule, which limits team-related activities to 20 hours per week, will be in effect. And final decisions will be pending.
“You can’t get three teams back after you run out the clock on Wednesday,” Swinney said. “You have to make the most of the time you have. But we have a good plan for htat, and we have for a long time. It just changes how you experience it.
