By: Darby Childress
After a year of uncertainty, change, and disappointment, we are finally just five days away until the start of the 2020 college football season. Just a few short days away from kickoff, coach, Tony Elliot spoke with the media about the approaching Wake Forest game in Winston-Salem.
Up until about a month ago, the Clemson Tigers football team were expecting to face the Georgia Tech Yellowjackets, but along with the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic, came change which resulted in the change of schedule that led to Clemson’s season opener being moved slightly farther north to face off with the Demon Deacons. Coach Elliot informed us that although the team spent the summer preparing for Georgia Techs scheme, “camp is just about us Tigers”, and by the time “normal” practice began again they were ready to prepare for Wake Forest.
Coach Elliot gave some in site on what the team is expecting out of this Wake Forest football team- “we have to have our guys ready. We have to be planning and preparing”. He spoke many praises on this year’s Demon Deacons team “Wake Forest has a bunch of guys that play hard. They play all the way to the whistle”, they “can get very complicated on third-down situations… Looking forward to the challenge” they can present.
As far as the Clemson offense goes, the final ACC required COVID-19 screening is on Friday but as of now “we have a plan to be able to go in and run the football”. We were informed that Travis Etienne will be the starting running back against Wake, under the assumption that he is
cleared by COVID testing, but Elliot made it clear that they are “all ready to play”, “In my mind, everyone in that room is a backup. You may not know who’s available every single week”. Tiger fans have been given the assurance that although this has been a different and challenging road up to this point “its been different with the protocols, but once we hit the practice field, it’s football as we know it” and that is what we should be prepared to see this weekend.
Wake Forest has elected to not allow fans into the stadium this season, but the NCAA has decided to allow schools to pump music and crowd noises into the stadium at a predetermined volume selected by both schools prior to the start of the game. With that being said, although Tiger and Deacon fans alike cannot be there to support our teams physically, there is no doubt they will feel us there in spirit. 19,000 Tiger fans can look forward to showing their support for the Tigers in Death Valley on Saturday, September 19th when Clemson has their first home game versus the Citadel.
