Clemson's 66-20 blowout win over App State on Saturday night was clouded by an injury to one of their best defensive players. Early in the second quarter at Memorial Stadium, Tigers defensive end Peter Woods was injured on an App State rushing play on which a Mountaineers tight end blocked Woods low and made contact with his legs and knees. Woods was slow to get up after the play, gingerly walked to the sideline and spent time in the injury tent. He was later spotted explaining his injury to Tigers coach Dabo Swinney, pointing to his knee and demonstrating how he’d been blocked.
Asked about the play postgame, Swinney was brief.
“Yeah, we’ll turn that one in,” Swinney said.
Swinney was referring to the practice of teams turning in plays for review to their league offices, something Clemson does regularly after every game with the ACC to get feedback on plays. The play in question didn’t result in any penalty on App State.
After getting hurt, Woods appeared visibly frustrated on the sidelines. Although it’s unclear if he subbed back into the game at all after his injury, the box score shows that Woods didn’t record any more stats in the game after the injury.
A true sophomore and former 5-star recruit from Alabama, Woods (6-foot-3, 315 pounds) is one of Clemson’s best defenders. He was a Freshman All American by multiple outlets in 2023 as a defensive tackle while playing in 12 games and starting 10. Woods had six tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and a sack against No. 1 Georgia last weekend in his first game as a full-time defensive end (the position he moved to this offseason) and started against the Mountaineers.
“I think he’s OK, but I’ll see tomorrow when we do a more thorough check,” Swinney said. “Seemed like most of the things we were really concerned about were OK.”
Swinney’s frustration around the play that injured Woods came down to cut block execution, he said. The NCAA has long banned chop blocks (when a player blocks low on an opponent who’s already being blocked high by another player) but its rules around cut blocks are more complex. In 2022, the NCAA Division I rules committee adopted a new rule for “blocking below the waist” that states it’s only allowed for “linemen and stationary backs inside the tackle box. Outside the tackle box on scrimmage plays, blocking below the waist will be prohibited.”
Swinney even shuffled around at the podium during his postgame news conference to demonstrate stances and explain how legal and illegal cut blocks are different (indicating the App State block on Woods was not clean in his opinion).
Said Swinney: “Cut blocks are legal at times as long as you’re 10 and 2 (in a straightforward position). But if you’re going across the line of scrimmage, if a guy’s not turned and coming 10 and 2, you can’t cut. If a guy’s boxing it, you can’t cut from the side. So we’ll see and evaluate that.”
Woods wasn’t the only Tiger to go down with an injury. Redshirt sophomore linebacker Kobe McCloud left the contest with an injury just before halftime. “Kobe got banged up. Hopefully, it won’t be too bad,” Swinney said. “We’ll see where he is tomorrow. Hopefully it’s not anything long-term. But I don’t really know right now.”
Clemson has its first open date next week before opening up conference play against No. 24 NC State in two weeks on Sept. 21.
