Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney held his weekly Zoom conference call with the media Sunday evening and updated the status of a starting offensive lineman who suffered an injury in Saturday’s 40-10 win over Miami at Death Valley.

Swinney said starting left guard Marcus Tate, who went down on Clemson’s first possession and had to be helped off the field, will have to undergo surgery after sustaining a knee injury and is out for the rest of the season.

While that’s the bad news, Swinney said the good news is that Tate’s injury is not related to his ACL.

“We got good news and bad news,” Swinney said. “Good news is his ACL and all that stuff is good. The bad news is there’s like a — I don’t really know how to explain it other than there’s like a little ligament or tendon or something that holds your kneecap, and that’s where he got hurt. K.J. (Henry) actually had a similar thing a couple years ago.

“So, he’s going to have to have surgery on that to get it fixed. But again, it’s not like an ACL surgery, so he’ll be fine. That’s the good news. The bad news is he’s going to be out for us.”

Swinney added that he expects Tate to be back this spring — not at full speed, but in a green jersey, Swinney said.

Tate started all 11 games the Tigers have played so far this season. The sophomore from Sunrise, Fla., played 627 snaps over 13 games with eight starts as a true freshman in 2021.

“I’m happy for him in that he was able to play 11 games and really got a lot of confidence this year,” Swinney said. “He’s still a young player as a sophomore and really, really grew a lot this year. He’s very confident in his ability. He just played so much faster and stronger than he did last year as a freshman. That’s a result of his experience and the work that he put in. He’s a guy that can play tackle for us as well.

“So, it’s unfortunate that his season’s going to be cut short, but a blessing that he was able to have the type of year that he had and grow like he did, but also the severity of the injury — any time you have to have surgery, it’s not good, but it could be a lot worse.”

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