Dabo Swinney shares Antonio Williams, Nate Wiggins are improving each day with health
At his Wednesday press conference, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney provided yet another update on the recovery of star players Antonio Williams (WR) and Nate Wiggins (CB).
On Tuesday, Swinney said that day’s practice would tell him a lot about the two injuries, and obviously he spoke again on Wednesday and was able to recap how the progression was so far in practice. When asked about Williams and Wiggins, he answered:
“Better. They’re better, they’re getting — like I said yesterday, you know, they’re day-to-day with their type of injuries. But improving every day.”
So, not much meat on the bone with that answer, but after saying they’d be more involved in practice this week, it doesn’t appear any further setbacks occurred, which is a very good sign.
Williams has been out since suffering an ankle injury against Florida Atlantic in Week 3, while Wiggins was injured late in Clemson’s loss to Florida State in Week 4.
Both players were able to get out on the field and move around some on Monday, ahead of Saturday’s game with Wake Forest, with Swinney recapping those developments earlier in the week:
“It was good. They looked pretty good last night,” he said on Tuesday. “Today will be a big day, because we’ll load them up a little bit more today with some pads and kind of see how it goes. But I thought they both moved around pretty good last night, so I mean we’re hopeful. But nothing definite right now.”
Swinney added that Clemson is not considering holding the two for the Wake Forest game to give them extra time to get healthy. After Saturday’s game against the Demon Deacons, Clemson has a bye next weekend.
“We just need to win this game. I mean whatever it takes to win the game. If they’re ready to play, they’ll play,” Swinney said.
“We don’t have the luxury of looking ahead. We’ve just gotta lock in on what gives us the best chance to win this week. We certainly wouldn’t put them in harm’s way or anything like that, but no thought of, ‘Well we can win this game, let’s hold this guy.’ No, this is all hands on deck. We’ve gotta do everything we can to find a way to win this game.”
Williams was the leading receiver for Clemson this season, prior to going down with an injury. He also led the Tigers in receiving last season as a true freshman, catching 56 passes for 604 yards and four touchdowns. So far in 2023, Williams has 15 catches for 145 yards and two scores.
Wiggins has been arguably Clemson’s best defensive player this year. He had an excellent game against FSU stud receivers Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson last month. He is expected to be a high draft pick in the NFL draft when he leaves Clemson. The junior has five tackles, a sack, three pass breakups and a pick-six for the Tigers so far this year.
On3’s Matt Connolly contributed to this report