Swinney Already Likes Look Of Clemson's 2020 Squad
The early days of spring practice aren’t just a time to shake off the cobwebs and ease into things.
For Clemson football and head coach Dabo Swinney, it’s about establishing a way of doing things.
“At the end of the day, it’s always the same (message) this time of the year, and that’s back at it, back to work, leadership and the chemistry of our team,” Swinney said. “You’ve got to earn it. Just the daily focus and how we practice, the practice expectations. We’ve got to get those little things right before anything else takes shape.”
However, what Swinney has seen so far has left him feeling pretty good about the 2020 squad. The Tigers are coming off a 14-1 season in which they finished No. 2 nationally after a loss to LSU in the national title game.
Enough pieces have returned, combined with 15 early enrollees from the 2020 recruiting class, to give Swinney an idea of what he’s working with already.
“Good group, fun group. Good looking football team,” Swinney said. “And we’re really blessed because we’ve got pretty much our whole team here. I think we’ve got about eight guys who will show up this summer. With 15 midyears, we’ve got a lot of bodies and a lot of depth we can develop this spring.”
Much of the reason for those positive vibes comes from Swinney’s multiple successful recruiting classes. The Tigers have not only produced three consecutive top-10 recruiting classes, they’ve hit on so many highly-touted and lesser-touted players.
Few teams in the country enter spring a quarterback-running back combo like Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne. The defense continues to retool, not rebuild, under defensive coordinator Brent Venbales. And there is that freshmen class, which ranked in the top-3 nationally and is already affecting this year’s team.
“We signed a really good class,” Swinney said. “These 15 guys that are here are really impressive, physically, athletically, attitude-wise, character-wise, all those things. We’ll see where they are football development-wise and football IQ-wise as we progress.”
That’s the next step: See how this talented group comes together and gets better throughout spring practice, which began Wednesday and ends with the annual spring game at Memorial Stadium on April 4.
“We’ve got a ways to go. We haven’t even put pads on,” Swinney said. “We’re a good looking team. We look the part. We’ve got to play the part. To play the part, you’ve got to be knowledgeable, you’ve got to be detailed and we’ve got a long way to go. Our football IQs have got to grow a lot this spring.”
