Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers’ new offensive coordinator, Chad Morris, made a bold call this transfer season. They said no to quarterback shopping. Even after losing senior starter Cade Klubnik to expired eligibility, Swinney didn’t flinch. While the quarterback room is now loaded with inexperienced talent, he shared his true feelings. 

“I believe we have five guys who can play quarterback at this level. We haven’t always had that,” said Swinney.  

While Clemson’s quarterback room is loaded with talent, it is critically short on experience. Clemson returns Christopher Vizzina, who’s logged just one start in three seasons. Along with him, Chris Denson and former walk-on Trent Pearman are still waiting for their first career start. Behind them stand two freshmen whom Dabo Swinney added: Brock Bradley and Tait Reynolds.

As Swinney claims, Clemson has never been spoiled with choices when it comes to the quarterback unit; it’s true. Their former quarterback, Cade Klubnik, played at Clemson for four seasons, starting in his final three. After the feats he put up for the Tigers roster, Swinney never felt the urge to look for other options. The former quarterback is No. 1 in Clemson history with 916 completions.

Vizzina has been considered the next man up ever since he stepped onto Clemson’s campus. Now a rising redshirt junior, he’s spent the past two seasons being Klubnik’s backup. Having played sparingly over the past two seasons as Klubnik’s backup, Vizzina has yet to show his full potential. Vizzina walks into 2026 after completing 63.4% of the passes for 406 yards in 2025. 

He did put up some mediocre outings, like completing 9 of 15 passes against Furman, but his play against SMU can’t be ignored. He crossed the 300-yard mark for passing yards, which showed his control in sustaining drives. It came with three touchdowns. 

As Swinney hinted that all five of them are talented, redshirt freshman Denson makes it a competition for the top spot. It took him one game against Furman to become the fan favorite. The freshman showed his accuracy in completing all four of his pass attempts for 22 yards. His six rushes for 106 yards screamed his big-play ability. 

Meanwhile, walk-on Pearman has been trusted to fill snaps, not drive the offense. Over three years, he appeared in six games, completing 40% of his throws for 43 yards. As for the freshmen, Swinney is banking on raw talent over college tape. 

A true two-sport weapon, Reynolds walked into Clemson as a top-10 quarterback in the 2026 football class. As the 2024 Arizona Player of the Year, Reynolds has all the tools, possessing a strong arm and the speed to break off long runs on any given scramble. Alongside Reynolds, Swinney also counts on Bradley, a three-star Alabama signal-caller who knows how to rack up wins. He left Spain Park High School as the winningest quarterback in program history.

Programs struggling with options to fill the starting role are a common scenario every spring. Like Clemson, Alabama is now juggling options between Austin Mack and Keelon Russell, backed by two freshmen, Jett Thomalla and Tayden Kaawa.

Now, with spring practice finally here, what can we expect from the Tigers roster?

Dabo Swinney’s spring games have all focused on the quarterback room

Swinney’s team will sweat it out as their spring practice started on February 25. The Tigers roster looks healthy for the practice, except for the offensive lineman Collin Sadler and tight end Olsen Patt-Henry. Several other players will have limited roles during spring practice. Some of them are wide receiver TJ Moore and offensive lineman Brayden Jacobs, among others.

While that looks concerning, Swinney has set his expectations straight for one player. The Clemson head coach wants Vizzina to use spring practice to solidify his claim to the starting job. 

“I want to see him take it and run with it,” the head coach said during a news conference before the beginning of spring practice. “He’s been working toward this, but really want to see him take command of the offense.”

In case the starting opportunity slips out of Vizzina’s hands, Swinney remains convinced about the ones waiting in line, as he mentioned. Additionally, he made it clear that the quarterbacks won’t be “live” this spring. There will be no shots, no takedowns. But that doesn’t mean they will be coddled.

There will be a “sense of reality” to mirror real Saturdays without the hits. Amidst this, who among the five is going to stand out?