Cornell Powell Draws Sterling Sharpe Comparison

Clemson's Associate AD of Football, Woody McCorvey, was telling people almost a year ago that receiver Cornell Powell would break out in 2020, going as far as comparing him to NFL Hall-of-Famer Sterling Sharpe.

Woody McCorvey knew Cornell Powell was going to burst onto the scene as a fifth-year senior.

Clemson's Associate AD of Football and head coach Dabo Swinney's right hand man, told Senior Bowl Executive Director Jim Nagy last summer to keep an eye out for Powell in 2020.

"I have to give Woody McCorvey, Coach McCorvey there at Clemson a lot of credit," Nagy said. "He put Cornell on our radar last summer and said 'Listen, Jim, this is a guy, he hasn't played a lot for us yet, but he's really talented, we believe in him. We think he's gonna have a breakout year.'"

In fact, McCorvey even went as far as making a comparison to a former Green Bay Packers great and NFL Hall of Famer when he was telling Nagy about Powell. 

'You hear a lot of player comps right now. Woody had the best one. He said, 'Jim, this guy's Sterling Sharpe to me.' You don't hear that many Sterling Sharpe references these days.'

Powell, who had played sparingly during his first four years at Clemson, had that breakout season last year. He recorded career-highs in catches (53), yards (882) and his seven receiving touchdowns were not only a career-high but also tied with Amari Rodgers for most on the Clemson team.

The third-team All-ACC selection really stepped it up over the second half of the season, when injuries had ravaged the wide receiver room. 

"You kind of saw it gradually happen over the course of the year," Nagy said. "Really was that Notre Dame game, that first Notre Dame game, that really stuck out. His ability to get down the field, make contested plays, run after the catch" 

ACC Network analyst and former Clemson offensive linemen Eric MacLain said that Powell's chiseled physique might have originally led to questions about his flexibility. However, after his 2020 season, and running an impressive 4.47 in the forty on Thursday, MacLain thinks any concerns about Powell have now been put to rest.

"I think maybe a question that some people look at is, he's so big, he's so thick, he can't change directions, he can't move," MacLain said. "Well, he has the tape where it's not just going routes, it's not just running by guys. He has a route tree, and I think that'll kind of answer those questions and the stuff that we see today. I mean when they run routes and you see every route an NFL receiver will run, that's some of the questions that they might get initially, but he's answered all of those."