Dabo Swinney Doesn't Hold Back About Clemson Freshmen Ahead of Georgia Matchup

Dabo Swinney is excited about the Clemson Tigers' freshmen heading into Week 1 against Georgia.

Jan 13, 2020; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney on the sidelines during the game against the LSU Tigers in the College Football Playoff national championship game at Mercedes-Benz Superdome. / Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

The 2024 college football season is set to kick off this weekend for the Clemson Tigers. Not only is the season set to get underway, they're starting off with a Week 1 matchup against the No. 1 ranked Georgia Bulldogs.

It's a tough way to start the season, but it also offers Clemson a huge opportunity.

Should they be able to find a way to pull off the upset, they would have a great path to the College Football Playoff. With Florida State losing to Georgia Tech to begin the season, the ACC is wide open for the Tigers.

Even if Clemson loses to the Bulldogs but are able to make it a good contested game, they would have a strong showing on their resume come playoff time.

Ahead of Saturday's matchup, Tigers' head coach Dabo Swinney spoke out and couldn't hold back from gushing about the freshman talent that Clemson has.

When asked about which freshmen Swinney was most excited to see on the field, he named quite a few.

Two of them were wide receivers Bryant Wesco and T.J. Moore.

“We’ve got a few that I’m really excited about. I think Wesco is probably one that just jumps out. I mean, he’s really ready to go. … Wesco, he’s really ready to roll. So, I’m excited to see him out there. Hopefully we can get T.J. in there as well. He’s really close to kind of taking that next step that we need him to take.”

He also talked about three others. Jay Haynes, a redshirt freshman running back, was one, with linebacker Sammy Brown and cornerback Ashton Hampton being the other two.

"We’ve got a couple of young freshmen that aren’t necessarily going to start for us, but I’m excited to see them, like Jay Haynes. He’s not a true freshman, but he might as well be because he was out all of last year… I’m excited to see him get out there and see what he can do as well. And then Sammy Brown is a guy that I think we’re all excited about. He’s a backup, a two for us, but he’s going to be all over the field on special teams and all that type of stuff. So, we’ve got a good group. I’d say Ashton Hampton is a guy in the secondary that I think has a chance to really help us this year.”

There is no question that Clemson is in a better place this season than they were in 2023 from a talent perspective. Swinney and the coaching staff have a lot of young talent to work with.

Hopefullly, all of the young players can hit the ground running with a strong performance against an elite Georgia team this week.