When Clemson held its annual Orange & White game last Saturday at Death Valley, Dabo Swinney was not concerned with the scoreboard.

The Tigers’ head coach just wanted a competitive game more than anything else. And though a 30-10 score indicates that was not the case, that wasn’t the competitive element he was looking for.

“It was really a competitive game, especially up front,” Swinney said to the media prior to Wednesday’s Prowl & Growl event in Charleston. “That is really what I was interested in was how we were going to hold up, up front. Would it look like big boy football? And I thought that they did a really nice job.”

They, of course, were Clemson’s young defensive linemen. Because they split the teams up and had players spread out, the coaches weren’t sure how freshmen like Tyler Davis, Logan Cash, Etinosa Reuben and Ruck Orhorhoro were going to hold up.

“They were ready for the moment and a bunch of them had their best day,” Swinney said. “So, it was encouraging from that standpoint. Again, I thought the guys competed well and we were able to create the game feel that a lot of those guys needed.”

Swinney has discovered in his exist meetings, especially when talking to his young players, the spring game was a big deal for them. For most of them, it was the first time they played in front of large crowd.

The spring game had 60,000 fans at Memorial Stadium last Saturday.

“That has been part of the conversation talking to a lot of those young guys,” Swinney said. “That’s a big deal for them. The confidence coming out of it. We are in a good place and, you know, we are pretty healthy coming out of the spring.”

Swinney said everyone is excited about what’s next and what they have to do to get ready for the 2019 season. The players will finish up the next two weeks with training and conditioning drills, which is mandatory, before taking off for finals. They will then get a couple of weeks to go home, go on mission trips, work internships or whatever they have planned before returning back to school later in May to begin their summer workout programs.

Clemson will open camp sometime in late July or early August before beginning defense of their national championship on Aug. 29 at home against Georgia Tech.