Monday practice report

Clemson held a pair of hour practices on Monday at the indoor track facility.

The Tigers are preparing for Saturday's game with Wake Forest, the first-place team in the Atlantic Division. With considerable rain in the Clemson area all day, Head Coach Dabo Swinney worked his defense for an hour in the indoor track facility, then worked his offense for the same period of time.

“With the open date we are obviously ahead of where we normally are on a Monday,” said Swinney. “We needed to work a full field as much as possible, but we got a lot done inside on the 50-yard field at the indoor track. It was a good practice, but we certainly want to get outside on Tuesday.”

The Tigers will meet Wake Forest on Saturday at noon at Clemson Memorial Stadium in a game that will be televised by RAYCOM sports. Wake Forest is 2-1 in the ACC and stands atop the Atlantic Division, but a victory for the Tigers on Saturday could move Clemson into a tie for the top spot after Saturday¹s ACC action if NC State wins at Boston College and Virginia wins at Maryland.

“The Atlantic Division is very competitive. We can go from fourth to first in one weekend. Our players realize our goals are still there.”

Twice in the first four years of the ACC Division alignment the Atlantic Division representative in the ACC Championship game has had a 5-3 regular season record and the Atlantic Division Champion has had at least two losses every year.

The Tigers are in good shape physically as the open date gave a lot of players a chance to heal injuries. Offensive tackle Chris Hairston is expected to be back at starting left tackle. He has been out of the starting lineup each of the last two games and Clemson has lost both games by narrow margins, 14-10 to TCU and 24-21 to Maryland.

The Tigers have plenty of preparation time on Monday and Tuesday this week as Clemson is off for fall break. The team will start Tuesday¹s schedule with a team meeting at 10:30 AM and conclude a busy day with a mid-afternoon practice.