Swinney "Super Excited" About Wide Receivers
Few coaches had to adapt in 2021 like Clemson Wide Receivers Coach Tyler Grisham. An almost inconceivable run of injuries resulted in Grisham’s unit starting two true freshmen and a fifth-year former walk-on for each of the final three games of the season. The team’s leader in starts at wide receiver, receptions and receiving yards was Justyn Ross, who was coming off of missing the entire 2020 season with a career-threatening spinal condition. By season’s end, 25 different Tigers caught at least one pass, the most in the Dabo Swinney era.
"Usually you only have nine on scholarship in college football, maybe 10. We're going to have 10 this year," Swinney said. "Our number has always been 10. We've rarely been at 10. We've usually been at nine. Some years 10, but most years nine and maybe a great couple walk on guys, but this year, we're going to be a 10 and I'm super excited about it because we got some talented guys."
But Clemson’s turnstile at wide receiver and the ensuing opportunity for young players has resulted in the Tigers returning receivers who account for 138 combined career games and five different players who have recorded at least one career start.
The group’s elder statesman is senior Joseph Ngata (Folsom, Calif.), who leads the returning receivers in both career games (31) and career starts (11). Before the injury bug struck him again midseason, Ngata got off to an impressive start, recording 110 yards on six receptions in the season opener against eventual national champion Georgia, one of only five 100-yard receiving performances surrendered by the Bulldogs last year. He also had an acrobatic touchdown reception in a three-point win at Syracuse in early October.
"Ngata has been amazing. He has been amazing," Swinney said. 'This off-season, his leadership. He's just done an awesome job. And I mean, again, just availability has been his issue. He had a great freshman year and then these last two years have just been a real challenge. So hopefully this is the year that he can stay on the field because if he can stay on the field, the rest take care of itself. I promise you that. He's a really talented player, high level."
Junior E.J. Williams (Phenix City, Ala.) similarly fought injuries throughout the 2021 campaign, missing time at various points in the year with hand, knee and leg injuries. But the third-year receiver has been lauded by coaches throughout his tenure for his toughness, and buoyed largely by a strong end to his freshman year in 2020, he will enter 2022 with 32 career receptions for 372 yards and two touchdowns in 20 career games with six starts.
Known as the “Collins Towers” in Dabo Swinney’s nomenclature, second-year sophomores Beaux Collins (Los Angeles, Calif.) and Dacari Collins (Atlanta, Ga.) emerged down the stretch of their true freshman years in 2021. Beaux joined elite company with his debut season, joining DeAndre Hopkins (2010), Sammy Watkins (2011), Artavis Scott (2014), Hunter Renfrow (2015), Deon Cain (2015) and Justyn Ross (2018) as the only Clemson freshmen — true or redshirt — in the Dabo Swinney era to post at least 30 receptions and at least 400 receiving yards in their first season. Dacari caught 16 passes for 221 yards in nine games and established himself early in his career as one of Clemson’s top perimeter blockers.
"The plus side of all the stuff we dealt with last year is Beaux and Dacari and what got accelerated with them," Swinney said. "That's a real plus. So now they're just both a lot further along than maybe they would've been, had we stayed completely healthy across the board and getting up. I can't wait to see Spec out there. I mean, he's looked good in our mat drills and stuff, but yeah, I ain't seen him play football in a while, so I'm excited to see him, and obviously, we think Will Taylor is special. I think Will Taylor is really, really special. Obviously, he's not out there. He's getting ready to play some baseball, but he'll be there in August. So it's a really good group for sure. Adding Adam Randall into that group and getting him there, and obviously Beaux and Troy. We got a lot of guys that are available to us."
Clemson will hope for a clean bill of health for fourth-year slot receiver Brannon Spector (Calhoun, Ga.), who missed the entire 2021 season while working through respiratory challenges. The slot position is also likely to be contested by Troy Stellato (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.), who redshirted as a freshman in 2021, and Will Taylor (Irmo, S.C.), the do-it-all dual-sport athlete who passed up MLB riches to play two sports at Clemson but had his freshman season in 2021 ended prematurely by a knee injury.
"Troy, we're going to probably keep more to two-man," Swinney said. "He'll cross-train. He'll do two and five, but it's all those guys. I mean, it breaks my heart that EJ's not going to be able to go, because again, this was just literally last week. He was tearing it up, but this is something that just needed to be fixed, but we know who he is and what he can do. I think he's got high-level ability, but the biggest thing is just getting our numbers back. I mean, to have seven scholarship receivers out, I've never been a part of that, as long as I've been coaching."
Three freshman scholarship signees will join the unit for 2022, including early enrollee Adam Randall (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) and summer enrollees Antonio Williams (Irmo, S.C.) and Cole Turner (Vestavia Hills, Ala.).
"The only ones we don't have are Antonio, who will be here this summer, Cole Turner, who will be here this summer," Swinney said. "Getting EJ back and then Will. So we'll have six scholarship guys out there and then we got a great group of walk-on guys that'll do a good job for us too. It's going to be exciting to have that amount of personnel to work with, and we'll ask a bunch of those guys to do some different things and cross-train, but we'll see how it all."
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Clemson Sports Information contributed to this story