{"id":564469,"date":"2026-04-04T17:06:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T17:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/564469\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T17:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T17:06:07","slug":"the-clemson-insider-43","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/564469\/","title":{"rendered":"The Clemson Insider"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following Clemson\u2019s March 28 spring game, head coach Dabo Swinney\u00a0provided clarity on the Tigers\u2019 quarterback battle<\/a>, saying that heading into the summer, redshirt junior Christopher Vizzina remains the QB1, while true freshman Tait Reynolds has emerged as the No. 2 quarterback.<\/p>\n

Swinney then went on to say that redshirt freshman Chris Denson \u2014 who entered the spring as the No. 2 quarterback \u2013 now has a decision to make<\/a> about whether he still wants to be a quarterback or if he likes his chances playing another position.<\/p>\n

On his Always College Football show, ESPN analyst Greg McElroy weighed in on Clemson\u2019s QB competition and where things stand coming out of the spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing into the spring, the assumption was that the competition would be between Christopher Vizzina and redshirt freshman Chris Denson, and then a true freshman Tait Reynolds,\u201d McElroy said. \u201cBut what actually emerged is that Vizzina, he right now, if they played a game tomorrow, he\u2019d start. That\u2019s not a huge surprise. But what might be the biggest surprise is that the backup right now is gonna be Reynolds \u2014 not Denson. So everyone kind of thought that it would be Denson that would push Vizzina the hardest, and he has now kind of fallen, it sounds like, to the third string. And Swinney is openly talking about the possibility of a position change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swinney said after the spring game that Vizzina and Reynolds have made the race to be Clemson\u2019s new starting quarterback a two-man race. He even said it was not close.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came out of the spring, CV one and Tait is two [on the depth chart]. It\u2019s not close. Those two guys separated, and that\u2019s where we are. That\u2019s just where we are,\u201d Swinney said.<\/p>\n

McElroy brought up the \u201cit\u2019s not close\u201d quote from Swinney, and McElroy believes that is \u201ckind of stunning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t often hear that from a coach that\u2019s trying to protect the interest of the players and protect the interest of the program, so it\u2019s kind of stunning to hear that,\u201d McElroy said. \u201cIt\u2019s also a little stunning that a young player who missed most of his high school senior season was able to go and perform that well in 15 practices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reynolds played for both teams in the spring game, and between the two sides, the Queen Creek, Arizona native was 7-for-10 for 74 yards. He also ran for a 1-yard touchdown for the Orange team in the second quarter.<\/p>\n

Reynolds was the No. 3 prospect in the state of Arizona and the 11th-best dual-threat quarterback nationally in the 2026 recruiting class, according to ESPN.<\/p>\n

A hamstring injury basically robbed Reynolds of his entire senior season at Queen Creek (Ariz.) High School, but before that, he completed 61.9 percent of his passes for 2,238 yards with 22 touchdowns and only five interceptions as a junior in 2024. He also rushed 137 times for 1,426 yards and 19 touchdowns that year en route to being named by the Arizona Cardinals as the state\u2019s player of the year.<\/p>\n

After the spring game, Swinney also readily admitted that Reynolds really\u00a0has a shot at pushing for Clemson\u2019s starting job<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwinney has described how his arm talent is elite,\u201d McElroy said. \u201cHe\u2019s big, he\u2019s strong, and sure, as a young player, there are some things he can do better operationally. But he\u2019s a guy that just continues to get better and better and better, and that\u2019s really big. And then, can Reynolds actually challenge Vizzina for the starting job this season? That was another question that was asked in the postgame press conference. Swinney\u2019s answer was one word \u2013 he said, \u2018Absolutely.\u2019 That\u2019s interesting. That is very, very interesting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s necessarily an indictment on Vizzina, by the way. I think more than anything else, it\u2019s an endorsement of what Reynolds might actually be and what he could develop into. By the way \u2013 stop me if you\u2019ve heard this before \u2014 there was a really young, talented true freshman that led Clemson to the national championship back in 2018. His name? Trevor Lawrence. Some guys are just different. Swinney is not afraid to do it. We\u2019ll see if that happens this year. I don\u2019t know if it will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vizzina, too, played well Clemson\u2019s spring game, completing 10 of 18 passes for 95 yards and a touchdown.<\/p>\n

Swinney\u00a0said in late January<\/a>\u00a0that Vizzina \u2013 who served as Cade Klubnik\u2019s backup for multiple years \u2013 entered spring practice in the \u201cpole position\u201d to take over as the Tigers\u2019 starter in 2026. Now, with spring ball in the books, Vizzina is still in the \u201cpole position\u201d according to Swinney.<\/p>\n

As for Denson and the possibility of him moving to another position, McElroy says it will be \u201creally interesting\u201d to see how that shakes out.<\/p>\n

Swinney said if Denson wants to move from the quarterback position, he will leave that up to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cDenson is as physically gifted as anybody on that roster. This is a guy that ran for over 100 yards in one quarter against Furman last year. He can flat-out fly. But from a passing game standpoint, it doesn\u2019t sound like he\u2019s where he needs to be to compete for the starting job. And he apparently has a decision to make,\u201d McElroy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he wants to stay at quarterback, he\u2019ll have a role, but he might be able to go and play a different position and have a bigger role. So, that will be really interesting to have a clear position change sitting on the table, and it\u2019s up to Denson to decide if he wants to pursue something else. That\u2019s tough if you\u2019re Denson. You came there to be a quarterback, and now you got beat out by a true freshman, who has barely played, has jumped you right now. That\u2019s a hard conversation. But it\u2019s also a testament to how good Reynolds is, first and foremost. And hey, I want to help the team, whatever it takes \u2014 Clemson is all about culture, right? \u2014 maybe I switch to a different position, or maybe I can help this team in a different way \u2014 I\u2019m open to that. After all, they switched Adam Randall from receiver to running back last year, and it worked out pretty well for the most part.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bottom line on Clemson\u2019s QB battle, McElroy concluded, is \u201cthe Vizzina against Reynolds quarterback storyline is gonna be interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to probably the storyline of fall camp,\u201d McElroy said. \u201cDoesn\u2019t sound like Reynolds is a guy that\u2019s just content being a backup and waiting his turn. It sounds like he is a legitimate threat to continue to improve and maybe go just steal the job outright. And if he does, that will be really interesting there in the ACC.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u2013Photo by Dawson Powers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following Clemson\u2019s March 28 spring game, head coach Dabo Swinney\u00a0provided clarity on the Tigers\u2019 quarterback battle, saying that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[6596,399,6600,6598,398,396,397,6597,99,6599,6601],"class_list":{"0":"post-564469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-clemson-insider-podcast","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-gymnastics","11":"tag-hero","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-football","14":"tag-ncaafootball","15":"tag-noonan","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-track-and-field","18":"tag-wednesday"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}