Clemson held its first scrimmage of fall camp on Saturday and a good bit of the team did not participate. The Tigers were a walking M.A.S.H. unit as they held a two-hour scrimmage at Memorial Stadium.

In all, 15 players missed Saturday’s scrimmage and one was injured during the scrimmage.

On offense, head coach Dabo Swinney said that running back Travis Etienne missed the scrimmage, as well as wide receivers Frank Ladson and Amari Rodgers. Fellow receiver Joseph Ngata was at practice, but he was not able to participate because he is still going through the acclimation period and should be able to practice on Monday.

Freshman wide receiver Ajou Ajou missed the scrimmage because he tweaked his hamstring right at the start of practice on Saturday.

“That was a bunch of guys that were not able to go,” Swinney said.

On the defensive side of things, Clemson was without defensive end Justin Foster, linebackers James Skalski, Baylon Spector and Kane Patterson, as well as cornerback Mario Goodrich.

“Don’t worry. Nobody has opted out. Nobody has the COVID or anything like that,” defensive coordinator Brent Venables said. “It is just bumps and bruises. It is that time of the year.”

Goodrich was out due to a stomach bug, according to Venables. Defensive tackle Etinosa Reuben, a redshirt freshman, also missed the scrimmage and has missed all of camp due to scaphoid surgery.

Though nobody on defense was out because of COVID, there were a few players on the offensive side that were out for “protocol reasons.” Besides Ladson, who has missed all of camp because of COVID-19 protocol, offensive linemen Kaleb Boateng and Mason Trotter are also in protocol, Swinney reported.

Offensive lineman Tayquon Johnson also missed the scrimmage. He is suffering from a migraine. Fellow lineman Blake Vinson is still not back. Swinney said his knee is not quite full go, yet. Vinson missed all of the spring with the same knee.

The Tigers are banged up because they did a lot of live work on Friday, their second day in full pads. Only one player actually got hurt in Saturday’s scrimmage.

“We got a lot of work done and it was a lot of fun,” Swinney said. “I think everyone came through it well. I think Will Brown was the only one. He came down and made a nice little grab. But he came down on his shoulder, so we are checking his shoulder out.”

Clemson will be off from practice on Sunday and will return to the practice fields on Monday.

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