Clemson Developing Depth In Win Over Wake
While Clemson's focus was on Wake Forest Saturday night, it was hard not to notice head coach Dabo Swinney with his eyes on the horizon.
The Tigers opened the 2020 season with a 37-13 victory in Winston-Salem. Trevor Lawrence finished the night with 351 yards passing and three total touchdowns. His night concluded late in the third quarter as Clemson began to use a number of younger players in preparation for the rest of the year.
"From our players perspective, they feel like they could have done more," Swinney said in his post-game press conference. "They know they left some meat on the bone, but they understood that we needed to grow our team up. We could have left those guys out there and continued to play, but that's not going to help our team."
Clemson was able to play 78 of the 80 players that made the trip to Winston-Salem Saturday night.
"That's going to help us," Swinney said. "You never know, you think you know, until you go and play and get exposed a little bit. Sometimes it becomes a little more real than practice. We got a lot of guys that are going to be really good players for us, but if we had needed them to win the game tonight they weren't quite ready.
Swinney said he was impressed with the first-team offensive line, and his team's ability to run the ball against the Demon Deacons.
"Guys did a great job tonight, we made some big plays," Swinney said. "I felt like our (first-team offensive line) would play well. We had some great runs and were able to run the ball some on third down. That is something that can really help us moving forward. I'm really pleased, a lot of good stuff happened tonight."
Eight different Tigers registered runs, including all three quarterbacks. Travis Etienne led the way with 106 yards and a touchdown. 13 different receivers registered a catch with Amari Rodgers and Braden Galloway each catching five passes.
"It was fun to see those (older) guys coaching and really hold the younger guys accountable, especially that second group of offensive linemen," Swinney said. "I think we're going to have an enormous amount of growth from our backups, but as far as the front line guys, they were ready to play."
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