Dabo Swinney offers latest injury update on Marcus Tate

The Clemson Tigers were handed a humbling and humiliating defeat at the hands of the Georgia Bulldogs in their season opener. Georgia won 34-3, but now the Tigers must turn the page. The good news is, they won’t face another team nearly as good as the Bulldogs the rest of the 2024 campaign. Not even close. In his Wednesday evening press conference, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney offered his latest injury update on Tigers offensive lineman Marcus Tate.

How has his elbow been through the last couple of practices? “He’s getting better each day. For sure,” Swinney explained.

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Tate has battled a number of injuries over the years with the Tigers, but has still played over 1,800 career offensive snaps in 33 games since 2021. As a true freshman, he became just the third Clemson true freshman offensive lineman since 1972 to start a season opener, when he started the Tigers’ 2021 opener against Georgia. He’s started in 28 games throughout his career.

The good news for Tate and the Tigers is they still have a path to the College Football Playoff, albeit a “really narrow path” according to Greg McElroy of ESPN. The Tigers just had 188 yards of total offense in the 31-point blowout. Downfield passing was still a struggle, with junior quarterback Cade Klubnik completing just 1-of-5 attempts traveling more than 20-air yards, according to Pro Football Focus.

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The bottom line is, Clemson just needs to win a winnable ACC to make the 12-team College Football Playoff, McElroy said. And he explained that, outside of a dominant performance from Miami, there wasn’t really another outing from a preseason ACC title contender that turned heads — for the right reasons, that is.

McElroy touched on the fact that Florida State, North Carolina State and Virginia Tech all underwhelmed, albeit in varying degrees.

“So, all that being said, Clemson is very much alive to make a run this year,” McElroy said. “Now, here’s the problem: Can they win a national championship right now? I don’t know if I’d go that far. I personally don’t think they can beat teams like Georgia, Ohio State and Penn State in three consecutive weeks. I don’t think I would choose them to win against any of those three teams.

Clemson will look to get back on track this Saturday, September 7th, against Appalachian State. Kick time is slated for 8:00 PM EST and the game will be televised by ACC Network.

On3’s Andy Backstrom also contributed to this article.