Dabo Swinney is enthusiastic about his football team across the board on both sides of the ball.

But if there is one area Clemson’s head coach is concerned about heading into the 2020 season, it is the second-team offensive line.

“We’re young there,” Swinney said Tuesday after the Tigers’ final day of fall camp. “Building the quality, dependable depth in that second group … I love our team. I mean, we’re in a really good spot. That first OL I think has got a chance to be a special group. Same thing at quarterback, same thing at tight end, same thing at running back, same thing at wideout. I think we’ve got the right type of people, the right type of functional players, and then that defensive line, we’ve got a really good group there, good depth. Our backers, I don’t think we’ve ever had a better group. And then our back seven, we’ve got guys banged up, up a day, down a day, so getting everybody all back healthy is huge.

“But I think the one area on our team is we’re just different than last year from an offensive line standpoint.”

With that said, Swinney loves what he saw in fall camp from freshmen offensive linemen like Mitchell Mayes and Paul Tchio — both of whom enrolled at Clemson in January and went through spring practice — and he is also high on summer enrollees such as Trent Howard and Walker Parks.

“Really talented. Guys are coming,” Swinney said. “I’m super impressed with what Mitchell Mayes has been able to do, and Paul Tchio. Trent Howard is a kid that’s come in here and really impressed us in camp. He just got here this summer. He’s a heck of a football player.”

The Tigers are optimistic they will get Blake Vinson back next week. The redshirt sophomore missed all of spring practice and fall camp with a knee injury, so his return would give the second-team O-line unit a boost.

“Blake Vinson is one of those guys that we’ve been holding out of practice,” Swinney said. “He’s been dressed every day, but we’ve been kind of progressing him with his knee to get him really full go. So, we’re hopeful that Blake will be able to maybe go next week. That’s our hope there. Obviously that would be a big shot in the arm for us because he’s a veteran player.”

Meanwhile, redshirt freshmen Mason Trotter and Kaleb Boateng returned to practice Tuesday after previously being held out as they went through COVID-19 protocol, while Clemson hopes fellow redshirt freshman Tayquon Johnson will be back next week. He has been suffering from a migraine and missed the Tigers’ scrimmage last Saturday.

“Mason Trotter was making huge progress but he had to be out, but he was back today,” Swinney said. “He and Boateng were back today. So, Mason is a guy that’s going to have to come on for us. Tayquon Johnson is another guy that we’ve been super excited about, but he’s been out for the last week or so, and we think he’s going to be green (limited contact) on Thursday and hopefully get him back going next week is our hope there.”

“So, we’re developing those guys,” Swinney added. “(Offensive line coach) Robbie (Caldwell) just does a great job teaching and cross training, but that’s probably the one area is developing eight, nine and ten in that offensive line. That first group is going to be really, really good.”

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