Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney humorously decided to teach quarterback Tait Reynolds a famous story during the Tigers' 37-0 shutout win over Charleston Southern.
During the third quarter, Reynolds briefly left the game briefly after coming up "gimpy" on a play. Fifth-year senior Trent Pearman came in at quarterback before Reynolds quickly returned.
In his postgame press conference following Clemson's victory, Swinney shared that he used Reynolds' brief absence to tell the legendary story about former baseball player Wally Pipp.
Pipp, as legend has it, missed a game for the New York Yankees during the 1925 season after asking manager Miller Huggins for a day off because of a headache. Lou Gehrig, the future Hall of Fame first baseman, began
a career streak of 2,130 consecutive games played. Pipp never got his got back.
Swinney told reporters:
"He's a baseball guy, and I said, 'Tait?' He was a little mad at me, but he was gimpy ... He said, 'I'm going back in next play.' I said, 'no, you're not. You'll go back in when I put you in.' So we had a little discussion... I said, 'have you ever heard of Wally Pipp?'
"Of course he hadn't heard of Wally Pipp, either... so you know why you haven't heard of Wally Pipp? Because he took a day off and they put this guy named Lou Gehrig in. You've probably heard of him. And so that's what I told Tait. I said, 'I may never put you back in!' So we had a little back and forth about the Wally Pipp story and then we put him back in."
Reynolds came back into the game shortly afterwards and finished the afternoon 17 of 26 for 127 yards passing.
Swinney was quick to add that Reynolds wasn't injured.
"He really wanted to go back in, and it was good because I didn't want people to think he was hurt," Swinney said. "He was just a little banged up, a little gimpy in the moment."
Clemson football schedule 2026
Clemson (4-2, 2-1) hosts Virginia Tech (4-2, 2-2)) in Week 8 of the 2026 college football season at Memorial Stadium. Kickoff is 7 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on ESPN.
All times Eastern.
- Sept. 5: at LSU Tigers (L, 51-10)
- Sept. 12: vs. Georgia Southern Eagles (W, 22-7)
- Sept. 19: vs. North Carolina Tar Heels (W, 28-20)
- Sept. 25: at California Golden Bears (W, 24-10)
- Oct. 3: vs. Miami Hurricanes (L, 41-13)
- Oct. 17: vs. Charleston Southern Buccaneers (W, 37-0)
- Oct. 24: vs. Virginia Tech Hokies, 7 p.m., ESPN
- Oct. 31: at Florida State Seminoles, TBA
- Nov. 7: at Syracuse Orange, TBA
- Nov. 14: vs. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, TBA
- Nov. 20: at Duke Blue Devils, 7:30 p.m., ESPN
- Nov. 28: vs. South Carolina Gamecocks, TBA
Record: 4-2 overall, 2-1 ACC.
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This article originally appeared on Clemson Wire: Dabo Swinney teaches Clemson football QB Tait Reynolds history lesson
