Swinney Believes Tiger Linebackers Are a Special Group

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney has raved about his deep group of talented linebackers all spring and thinks the Tigers are in a great spot ahead of the Spring Game on April 3.

Dabo Swinney can't stop raving about his linebackers this spring.

The Tigers have what is arguably one of the deepest group of linebackers in the ACC, and quite possibly the country. 

Behind veteran starters James Skalski and Baylon Spector, the Clemson linebacker room is loaded with highly-touted second and third year players. The Tigers have so much talent waiting in the wings that they chose to sign just one linebacker in the most recent recruiting class.

"One of the reasons we only signed one guy is because we love our roster," Swinney said. "You know, we love Kane Patterson, (Keith) Maguire, (LaVonta) Bentley, you know, Jake (Venables) and Trenton (Simpson), Sergio (Allen). I mean we, we love the guys that we have."

That one linebacker the Tigers signed was Jeremiah Trotter Jr., a Top-50 talent and the fifth best player at his position in the 2021 recruiting class.

"There's a reason why we only signed one linebacker in this class," Swinney said. "When you're only gonna sign one, you better go get a great one. And that's what we did with Trotter. Trotter is a really good football player, very natural. He's got a bright, bright future for us."

As his team gets close to winding down spring practice ahead of the Spring Game on April 3, Swinney has been overly impressed from what he has seen from the entire group and thinks his team will be in a very good place heading into fall camp.

'Maguire's gonna be a redshirt sophomore, and you know, the game is slowing down, it's not an easy position to play," Swinney said. "Bentley has been awesome this spring, you know he's gonna be a redshirt sophomore. So I'm really pleased with what I've seen out of that group."

"(Kevin) Swint is a, he's a very natural player, and he's cross training. He's playing back and he's playing D-End, he's still a little bit of both, and he's a guy that will be a redshirt freshman for us, he and Sergio. And then Trenton Simpson is, you know, he's, he's, he's working the WILL, is working SAM, is a guy that we can do a lot of things with. He's made a lot of progress, Great for us as a true freshman. He's on his way to having a great year for us if he stays healthy, because he's just at another level from a knowledge standpoint."

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