Seen and heard at Clemson camp: Its time for the Jervey Meadows rite of passage
CLEMSON, S.C. — Jervey Meadows sits directly across the street from Clemson’s 142,000-square-foot, $55 million football facility. It is, undoubtedly, “terrible,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said.
The grassy field, which serves as a tailgating lot during football season, is grungy, small and hot. It’s the type of place that accentuates the dog days of humid summers in the south and tests Clemson’s football players in the thick of preseason camp. That’s why, for as much as Swinney hates it, he also loves it.
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“Live modern, train old,” he said. “It’s just kind of a rite of passage for us in camp around here.”
The Tigers made the trek to Jervey Meadows at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday morning for their first practice in full pads. The temperature rose from 79 degrees at the start to 88 degrees and counting by the end nearly three hours later. Somehow, Swinney still had the energy to run three miles afterward with a walk-through at Death Valley still to come on Thursday night.
“It’s that time where we’re getting a little fatigued,” he said. “So I want to make it a little tougher.”
The Tigers are back at Jervey Meadows on Friday morning before they spend an afternoon at the lake Friday and prepare for their first scrimmage of camp on Saturday morning.
As competition between teammates heats up, here are some of what’s been seen and heard — both from the grimy side field and the lavish facility.
Clemson’s running backs battle is still open. The Tigers listed senior Lyn-J Dixon and sophomore Kobe Pace as co-starters on their preseason depth chart, with both earning first-team reps throughout camp. Dixon, who served as Travis Etienne’s backup, enters the season with 1,372 career yards and 13 touchdowns on 208 career carries. Pace had 75 yards on 18 carries in 2020 and caught five passes for 26 yards and a touchdown. Will Shipley, the five-star true freshman who continues to smoke everyone in post-practice sprints, appears next in line.
The running backs putting the ball on the ground twice Wednesday did not please Swinney. Ball security is what he’s stressing most.
“That’s the No. 1 thing,” he said. “But the next thing is, let’s go play some live football and see who’s going to run through the trash, who’s going to create some space, make the big plays in the big moments.”
In that regard, Saturday’s scrimmage could provide some clarity for running backs coach C.J. Spiller, who said in the spring he had no clear pecking order. Swinney reiterated this week that multiple running backs will play, and that this could come down to“game-by-game, week-by-week,” based on how the competition unfolds.
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Asked about Pace this week, offensive coordinator Tony Elliott encouraged reporters not to “sleep on No. 20.” Pace acknowledged Thursday that he fumbled twice during spring practice and said consistency will make the difference for him if he ultimately wins the starting job. Spiller, after all, isn’t going easy on his new players.
“Oh he’s going to hold you accountable now,” said Dixon, who said he’s enjoying the competition. “You fumble the ball, we’re gonna run. We do all that, we’re gonna run.
“He ain’t gonna let nothing slide.”
Junior safety Lannden Zanders revealed that he was only about 70 percent healthy in 2020. He tore his labrum midway through last year’s preseason camp. It affected him mentally, he said, because he felt like he was constantly trying to protect his shoulder while making tackles.
“Last year, I was kind of favoring it, not trying to pop it out again,” he said.
Zanders said he had an MRI around this time last year, which revealed that he’d need surgery. He decided he still wanted to play, then had surgery in mid-January after the Tigers lost to Ohio State in a national semifinal. He says he is 100 percent now.
“There were times during games when it would pop out and stuff, but with a torn labrum and stuff, you really can’t do nothing about it,” he said. “Just pop it back in and try to go back out there.
“I’d say it happened about once or twice a game.”
Seeing a new quarterback in a No. 16 jersey has admittedly been a little jarring now that Trevor Lawrence has left for the NFL. But it’d be difficult to find another player on the roster whom Swinney has raved about with the same awe as freshman quarterback Will Taylor.
Taylor can do a little bit of everything. The Texas Rangers selected him in the 19th round of the MLB Draft once it became clear he wanted to go to school to play both football and baseball. He had been slotted as a first-rounder by The Athletic’s Keith Law.
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The Tigers signed him as a quarterback for depth purposes, but plan to move him to wide receiver in the long term. He stayed late to work on the JUGS machine after practice Wednesday evening. Taylor throws a pretty ball, will play center field for coach Monte Lee’s Clemson baseball team and “heck yeah” will “definitely” return some punts this season, Swinney said.
“I’m amazed at Will Taylor. I’m amazed,” Swinney said. “He can do anything. I called him Doug Flutie the other day. I would imagine that’s what Doug Flutie looked like. … Just electric.
“He makes all these throws with all these crazy arm angles, and you’re like, ‘How in the world could he even see that guy?’ He sees them all and gets the ball off.”
Taylor won a state championship as a quarterback for Dutch Fork High School in Irmo, S.C., and will be “ready to go win the game for us,” Swinney said, if the Tigers need him.
The Tigers value having deep options at QB. After Kelly Bryant left the program four games into 2018, former walk-on wide receiver Hunter Renfrow became the Tigers’ emergency quarterback. Renfrow played quarterback in high school, but ran the option. He knew Clemson’s offense, but only from a wide receiver’s standpoint.
“In this crazy world we live in, (if) we get in a bind two years from now or something, I’m not starting from scratch with a guy like Hunter Renfrow,” Swinney said. “The whole goal is to kind of have an ace of spades in the back pocket at all times, because you just never know.”
Andrew Booth Jr. is shaping up to be the Tigers’ No. 1 cornerback. He’s already proven he has the athleticism and ball skills. He showed Thursday that he’s got the personality, too.
Booth met with reporters for the first time during camp, taking on the role of 50 percent trash talker, 50 percent hot yoga aficionado.
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Booth says that wide receiver E.J. Williams is the best trash talker on offense and defensive tackle Ruke Orhorhoro is the best on defense. But don’t be fooled: Booth can hold his own.
Upon learning that left tackle Jordan McFadden told reporters last week that Shipley got the best of Booth during conditioning work on the Tigers’ hill at Death Valley, the cornerback instantly had a bone to pick.
“Who said that? Jordan said that?” he asked. “Hmm, I’m going to have to see Jordan.”
A few minutes later, when asked about junior boundary receiver Joseph Ngata and the battles Booth has had with him in one-on-ones, Booth tapped into sarcasm.
“It’s been great. Me and Ngata, we’ve been going at it. I didn’t get to see him (Wednesday),” he said. “He probably had a good little day over there (Wednesday) because I was on the other side.”
The junior also made it clear he’s down to challenge anyone in a foot race when he’s not doing yoga by himself in the Clemson heat.
Freshman corner Nate Wiggins?
“Nate’s fast, but we ain’t raced yet so I can’t give it to him,” Booth said. “If he wants to go down, he can go down.”
And Shipley?
“Yes, yes. Will is fast, too,” he said. “But that ain’t go down yet.”
Five-star offensive tackle Tristan Leigh might be the highest-ranked offensive lineman in program history, but he still has a way to go.
Swinney is confident Leigh has all the tools to be successful at left tackle, but he said Leigh’s first step is to get in better physical shape. That starts with getting stronger, a sentiment Elliott echoed when comparing Leigh to fellow freshman offensive linemen Dietrick Pennington and Marcus Tate.
“You can tell that the future is very bright for him. But I think when you compare him with Pennington and Tate, just physically, they’re a little bit more developed,” Elliott said. “But what I really, really like about Tristan is every time I see him, he’s got his iPad or he’s got his phone and he’s got playbook stuff up. He’s hungry. He’s eager to learn. I just think physically he has a little bit more that he has to do in order to get ready to play than the other two.”
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Leigh, who is 6-foot-6, weighed in at 315 pounds last week. The 6-foot-5 Tate stepped onto the scale at 327 pounds and 6-5 Pennington came in at 338. Swinney said Pennington, a guard, is one of the strongest players on the team and is “not the norm.” He added that he’s also looking to see how quickly Leigh picks things up mentally.
“He’s nowhere near what he’s going to be a year from now, three years from now, six months from now,” Swinney said. “But the main thing right out of the gate is, ‘Where’s his head?’”
Clemson is high on sophomore wide receiver Ajou Ajou. So high, in fact, that Elliott made quite the comparison this week when asked whom Ajou might remind him of.
“He’s his own person. He’s different. (But) if I had to say a person he reminded me of, his movements remind me of Nuk — DeAndre Hopkins,” Elliott said. “But he’s bigger. Might be a little bit faster.”
The game has clearly slowed down for Ajou, who grew up playing football in Canada before finishing his career at Clearwater Academy in Florida. Swinney said he told Ajou, who got up to 240 pounds after last season, he could either be the next Terrell Owens, a wide receiver, or the next Shannon Sharpe, a tight end, depending on his size. Not wanting to play tight end, Ajou got down to 224 pounds. He says he has only about 8 percent body fat.
Told what his offensive coordinator said about him, Ajou was almost incredulous.
“Wow. I mean, Nuk? Come on,” he said with a grin. “He’s like, the greatest.”
Clemson has rolled out quite the guest speakers this week. For Elliott, it meant meeting his childhood hero.
After Charles Barkley spoke to Clemson on Monday — saying he played exactly one day of football before he hung it up — the Tigers got a visit from eight-time MLB All-Star Darryl Strawberry on Tuesday.
Elliott, who showed up in a No. 18 Mets jersey, said he got emotional meeting Strawberry. Strawberry played for the New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees. Elliott’s son wears No. 18 on his travel baseball team in honor of his dad’s love for Strawberry.
Was a pleasure hearing from 8-time MLB All-Star, Darryl Strawberry this morning!
Even had a few fans in attendance! 👀 pic.twitter.com/5NKsS071lE
— Clemson Football (@ClemsonFB) August 10, 2021
“First of all, his message was outstanding and just right on time. And it had nothing to do with the player that he is or the player that he was. It’s all about the man that he is today,” Elliott said. “He was my childhood hero growing up in the city of El Cajon outside of San Diego, Calif. All you knew about was Darryl Strawberry. Everyone wanted to be Darryl Strawberry.
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“I just really appreciate him, his transparency,” Elliott said of Strawberry, who had documented struggles with substance abuse. “I appreciate what the Lord has done in his life in transforming him and just giving him the platform to be able to touch so many people. It was really cool.”
Other notes
• Clemson is expected to get wide receiver Justyn Ross (COVID-19 protocol) back Friday. Now that he’s been cleared medically to play football again, he can be a contact participant in camp for the first time since a congenital fusion of his spine was diagnosed in the spring of 2020.
• Ajou and tight end Jaelyn Lay are the most improved players on offense, per Swinney. Orhorhoro and linebacker-turned-defensive end Kevin Swint get the nod defensively.
• There is still no announced separation at center. Hunter Rayburn, Mason Trotter and left guard Matt Bockhorst are all candidates.
• Clemson has Wednesday of next week off. It’s the first day of school.
(Photo of Clemson running back Kobe Pace: Ken Ruinard / USA Today)
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