Clemson bye week schedule includes serving the community

Clemson gets a much-needed bye week this week after playing eight consecutive games to open the season.

Tigers defensive end KJ Henry said that his schedule for this week includes taking “so many naps,” but the Tigers also have plenty of work to do on and off the field.

Clemson is practicing Monday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week, before giving players the weekend off.

“We’ll work on Clemson, work on some of the basics, really study and self evaluate some of the things we need to improve on from these first eight weeks,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. “We’ll work on recruiting. But everybody will get a couple of days off this weekend. The players will finish up on Thursday afternoon. They’ll get a nice break.”

In addition to working on the field for three days, the Tigers will also have a community service project on Tuesday.

The team is being split into two groups in order to provide as much help as possible in the Upstate.

One half of the team will help at Anderson Interfaith Ministries, which is a nonprofit organization that’s mission is “connecting people with support, resources, and education so they can empower themselves to become self-sufficient.”

“Really helps a lot of people,” Swinney said. “To be able to go in there and do a lot of the work they need, whether it be food pantry or things on the campus that need to be fixed.”

The other half of the team will work with Habitat for Humanity, which is a “nonprofit organization that helps people in your community and around the world build or improve a place they can call home.”

Swinney added that the community service projects are a yearly priority for the Clemson program.

“That’s a lot of man-power that can really make a difference in a day. So that’ll be our projects for the day,” he said.

After getting this week off, Clemson will return to action on Nov. 5 at Notre Dame in what will be the final true road test of the season for the Tigers.

Clemson will also get in some early prep on the Irish this week.

Notre Dame plays at Syracuse on Saturday, which is the team Clemson struggled with, before escaping with a win over the weekend.

“Definitely have an opportunity to use it wisely and recover some, because we have been going for 12 straight weeks,” Swinney said of the bye.