The Tigers are recuperating from this morning's situational scrimmage at the stadium, and recharging for this evening's practice. A few interesting developments from our time spent visiting with folks around the team earlier today:
-- Chatted with Adam Choice for a while, and talked about last week's mini-scare with his left knee. He felt a twinge and pulled himself out, spending about 20 minutes being examined by the team's medical staff. He said everything is fine and he's working to carve out a spot in the running back rotation.
"It was just something that felt weird. So we were just taking precautions with it and making sure nothing went wrong," he said.
Choice, who tore his ACL last season against Boston College, said the hardest part of coming back from surgery is the mental recovery and regaining full confidence.
"I've been through surgeries before, and sometimes something doesn't feel right and you're kind of scared that something went completely wrong. But then you realize nothing did. It's the whole mental side of it, just trying to be cautious with it and take care of it. You don't know whether to go full speed, and you're in between sometimes."
-- Speaking of recovering from an ACL, Stanton Seckinger was still in yellow today. He still appeared to be jogging very gingerly on his surgically-repaired knee at the conclusion of practice.
-- Dabo Swinney told the media he's worried about a potentially serious knee injury suffered by Korrin Wiggins. We'll certainly let y'all know when we know something on that. Same with Mike Williams and the apparent hamstring injury he suffered today.
-- The offensive line has shown some improvement over the past couple of days, according to several folks we talked to. They're showing some fight after losing most of the battles over the first week or so. They did well Saturday in the first Paw Drill of camp, then got pushed around in Monday's Paw Drill. Eric Mac Lain said the line "has really flourished" the past two days. He credited first-year grad assistant Thomas Austin with helping push this inexperienced crew along. They're going to be a work in progress, but they're athletic and they have some nastiness to them.
-- D.J. Reader has been a new man lately, as we mentioned earlier this week. I talked with him today to learn more about his mental and physical transformation, and on that latter part he told he he was up to 352 pounds at the end of May. This obviously did not sit well with Brent Venables or anyone else, and Reader busted his tail over the next two months and is down to 318 as of today. That's amazing. Stay tuned for a more in-depth story on his weight loss over the next few days.
-- Mackensie Alexander created a bit of a stir today when, in a rare interview, he said he's the best cornerback in college football "and it's not even close." When people on the outside see this, they interpret it as a player talking needless smack. But people on the inside have a different view of it in this case, because they see how hard the guy works and grinds. The kid treats every single rep in practice like it's the ACC championship. It's really something to see.
-- Swinney had a lot of support from Clemson yesterday at his father's funeral in Alabama. The university had two planes in use shuttling between here and there. Among the people who went: president Jim Clements and his wife Beth, several trustees including David Wilkins and Smyth McKissick, Woody McCorvey and his wife, and also Thad Turnipseed, Joe Galbraith and Tim Bourret. Dan Radakovich could not attend because he's at the College Football Playoff meetings in California.
-- Here's more from Choice on coming back from ACL surgery:
-- The bloodthirsty media jackals anxiously await descending on unsuspecting players and coaches for interviews:
-- Media members grill Mac Lain about whether the S-O-N will be added to the south upper deck by the opener:
-- And a pretty cool view of the West End Zone:
-- Chatted with Adam Choice for a while, and talked about last week's mini-scare with his left knee. He felt a twinge and pulled himself out, spending about 20 minutes being examined by the team's medical staff. He said everything is fine and he's working to carve out a spot in the running back rotation.
"It was just something that felt weird. So we were just taking precautions with it and making sure nothing went wrong," he said.
Choice, who tore his ACL last season against Boston College, said the hardest part of coming back from surgery is the mental recovery and regaining full confidence.
"I've been through surgeries before, and sometimes something doesn't feel right and you're kind of scared that something went completely wrong. But then you realize nothing did. It's the whole mental side of it, just trying to be cautious with it and take care of it. You don't know whether to go full speed, and you're in between sometimes."
-- Speaking of recovering from an ACL, Stanton Seckinger was still in yellow today. He still appeared to be jogging very gingerly on his surgically-repaired knee at the conclusion of practice.
-- Dabo Swinney told the media he's worried about a potentially serious knee injury suffered by Korrin Wiggins. We'll certainly let y'all know when we know something on that. Same with Mike Williams and the apparent hamstring injury he suffered today.
-- The offensive line has shown some improvement over the past couple of days, according to several folks we talked to. They're showing some fight after losing most of the battles over the first week or so. They did well Saturday in the first Paw Drill of camp, then got pushed around in Monday's Paw Drill. Eric Mac Lain said the line "has really flourished" the past two days. He credited first-year grad assistant Thomas Austin with helping push this inexperienced crew along. They're going to be a work in progress, but they're athletic and they have some nastiness to them.
-- D.J. Reader has been a new man lately, as we mentioned earlier this week. I talked with him today to learn more about his mental and physical transformation, and on that latter part he told he he was up to 352 pounds at the end of May. This obviously did not sit well with Brent Venables or anyone else, and Reader busted his tail over the next two months and is down to 318 as of today. That's amazing. Stay tuned for a more in-depth story on his weight loss over the next few days.
-- Mackensie Alexander created a bit of a stir today when, in a rare interview, he said he's the best cornerback in college football "and it's not even close." When people on the outside see this, they interpret it as a player talking needless smack. But people on the inside have a different view of it in this case, because they see how hard the guy works and grinds. The kid treats every single rep in practice like it's the ACC championship. It's really something to see.
-- Swinney had a lot of support from Clemson yesterday at his father's funeral in Alabama. The university had two planes in use shuttling between here and there. Among the people who went: president Jim Clements and his wife Beth, several trustees including David Wilkins and Smyth McKissick, Woody McCorvey and his wife, and also Thad Turnipseed, Joe Galbraith and Tim Bourret. Dan Radakovich could not attend because he's at the College Football Playoff meetings in California.
-- Here's more from Choice on coming back from ACL surgery:
-- The bloodthirsty media jackals anxiously await descending on unsuspecting players and coaches for interviews:
-- Media members grill Mac Lain about whether the S-O-N will be added to the south upper deck by the opener:
-- And a pretty cool view of the West End Zone:
