Clemson Tigers Linebacker Named to Midseason All-Freshman Team After Strong Start

The Clemson Tigers continue their recruiting dominance with their latest linebacker receiving All-Freshman Team nods at the midway point.

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The Clemson Tigers under head coach Dabo Swinney have shown a consistent pattern of recruiting dominance for the better part of his tenure with the program.

Swinney has brought in a recruiting class inside the top 20 in every season since 2011, a level of recruiting dominance that only the top programs and top coaches can do on a yearly basis.

The most recent class was no different, finishing with an overall ranking of 15th per 247sports, with standouts like Bryant Wesco Jr. and T.J. Moore already proving to be big pieces of the offense for the foreseeable future.

This class also included linebacker Sammy Brown, the top-ranked recruit for the team this year, who was recently named to The Athletic's midseason freshman All-America team after a strong start to his collegiate career.

"Though he’s yet to start a game and has played only 112 snaps," writes Manny Navarro, "Brown has recorded 21 tackles, 5 1/2 TFLs, two sacks and two pass breakups."

Even with the limited playtime, Brown has made an impact on the defensive side of the ball through the Tigers' first six games of the year.

He has averaged 3.5 tackles, 0.92 tackles for loss, 0.33 sacks, and 0.33 pass breakups across those games, and those totals only look to increase drastically as Brown receives more playing time.

Brown has shown that he can wreak havoc on opposing defenses, with both of his sacks coming against the Stanford Cardinal in just 15 snaps and 3.5 of his tackles for loss in 37 snaps against the NC State Wolfpack.

The freshman was recruited heavily across the country out of Jefferson High School in Jefferson, Georgia, as he was ranked as the 14th-best recruit in the nation, the second-best linebacker, and the second-best recruit from the state of Georgia.

Brown, 6-2 and 230 pounds, received offers from top programs such as the Texas Longhorns, the Alabama Crimson Tide, the Georgia Bulldogs, the Tennessee Volunteers, and the Ohio State Buckeyes among others, but ultimately decided to commit to Clemson and play for the much-respected Swinney.

For his high school career, Brown totaled 359 tackles, 18 tackles for loss, seven sacks, four pass breakups, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery, and three interceptions.

It is only the beginning of what looks to be a promising collegiate career for the freshman linebacker out of Georgia, and this is sure to be but the first accolade he brings home.

If all continues to go well for Brown, he could be yet another Swinney product in the NFL before we know it.