Clemson may have entered the season with Christopher Vizzina as its starting quarterback, but one game was never going to settle the position for good.
That became even clearer Saturday night in Baton Rouge.
Vizzina and freshman Tait Reynolds both received extended opportunities in Clemson’s 51-10 loss to LSU, giving Dabo Swinney his first real chance to evaluate the two quarterbacks outside of practice. Afterward, Swinney was not ready to name a starter for next week’s matchup with Georgia Southern.
“I don’t know,” Swinney said when asked whether Vizzina would remain QB1. “Again, we gotta watch the tape and evaluate, then we’ll go from there.”
Vizzina earned the opening start, but Swinney had already left room for Reynolds to get on the field.
Saturday gave the Tigers’ their first meaningful look at both players against another opponent.
Vizzina played most of the first half, finishing 10-of-16 for 83 yards. His biggest mistake came on an interception LSU returned for a touchdown.
Reynolds entered before halftime and remained in the game into the second half, completing four of six passes for 22 yards. Vizzina later returned with Clemson facing a massive deficit.
“That’s what I said coming into it. That’s why I said we didn’t want to guarantee that [Tait] was going to play, but it was pretty likely he was going to play,” Swinney said. “So, we needed to go play games. Again, I wish we had a game or two where you gotta go work the kinks out, but that’s not the stick we drew. So, we’ve got some stuff on tape now. We’ve got some things in real live games that we can evaluate, and then we’ll go from there.
“So, I would say we’ll continue to keep moving forward. I think there will be more to come on that as we go play another game or two.”
Swinney also made it clear that no immediate conclusions would be drawn from the loss.
“We’ll study the film,” Swinney said. “The pick-six hurt. I mean, that hurt. I think it was a drop end that dropped into [coverage], and he didn’t see him. So, good play by them. That was a killer.
Clemson reaches new low under Dabo Swinney with blowout loss to LSU
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“CV made some nice throws, and Tait came in there – it was good to be able to get him in there, let him play and let him get hit a little bit. Wish it had been different circumstances. But both of those guys, we’ll evaluate them and we’ll keep moving forward.”
Clemson now heads home with more information at quarterback, but still no final answer. Georgia Southern could provide another important look at both Vizzina and Reynolds before Swinney decides whether the position begins to separate.
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This article originally appeared on Clemson Wire: Will Christopher Vizzina start for Clemson next week? Dabo Swinney responds
