Clemson obviously had a disappointing season last year, but to their credit, they made major adjustments. This included multiple ****** istant coaching changes, a bevy of major portal acquisitions, and much more successful investment in high school recruiting.
To start the 2026 season, they'll be facing a program that experienced even more change this offseason with LSU bringing in Lane Kiffin as head coach and Charlie Weiss Jr. as offensive coordinator. A huge transfer haul joins them. These two programs will clash in Baton Rouge to start the season. What does Clemson need to nail down before they get there?
1. Do they have a QB they trust?
After electing not to get Christopher Vizzina game experience in the Pinstripe Bowl, it felt like Clemson would look to the transfer portal for their 2026 starting QB. That wasn't the case though as Clemson largely eschewed the portal on offense (other than running back Chris Johnson Jr.). Here's what Coach Swinney said at ACC Media Days on the QB situation.
"We made a decision that we weren't going to go get some shiny object at quarterback… If it doesn't work out, we're going to get raked over the coals for that. You've got to make decisions you believe in… There's a reason why we had confidence in the decision we made. That's because we're there every day. CV has earned the opportunity to go be the starting quarterback at Clemson based on everything we've observed. Now, if we didn't think he was good enough and he hadn't demonstrated the things he can control we might have made a different decision. The other thing is we knew who was coming in and we believed in him (Tait Reynolds) and Brock [Bradley]." – Coach Swinney
#decision #start
To start the 2026 season, they'll be facing a program that experienced even more change this offseason with LSU bringing in Lane Kiffin as head coach and Charlie Weiss Jr. as offensive coordinator. A huge transfer haul joins them. These two programs will clash in Baton Rouge to start the season. What does Clemson need to nail down before they get there?
1. Do they have a QB they trust?
After electing not to get Christopher Vizzina game experience in the Pinstripe Bowl, it felt like Clemson would look to the transfer portal for their 2026 starting QB. That wasn't the case though as Clemson largely eschewed the portal on offense (other than running back Chris Johnson Jr.). Here's what Coach Swinney said at ACC Media Days on the QB situation.
"We made a decision that we weren't going to go get some shiny object at quarterback… If it doesn't work out, we're going to get raked over the coals for that. You've got to make decisions you believe in… There's a reason why we had confidence in the decision we made. That's because we're there every day. CV has earned the opportunity to go be the starting quarterback at Clemson based on everything we've observed. Now, if we didn't think he was good enough and he hadn't demonstrated the things he can control we might have made a different decision. The other thing is we knew who was coming in and we believed in him (Tait Reynolds) and Brock [Bradley]." – Coach Swinney
#decision #start
3 months ago
