The Clemson Insider recently spoke with a fast-rising tight end prospect that’s spoken with Clemson tight ends coach/passing game coordinator a few times now, as well as having some members of Clemson’s coaching staff follow him on Twitter over the past couple of weeks.
Richardson followed Blackman (Murfreesboro, TN.) three-star tight end Ben Marshall on Twitter over a month ago and reached out to him shortly thereafter.
“He’s just been keeping in touch with me, asking me how I’m doing, invited me to camp this summer and he just invited me to the spring game,” Marshall said. “I haven’t talked to him on the phone at all, but he’s talked to my coach and been texting me a little bit, but I feel like he really wants me to go up to camp, so we can work together. He seems like a really nice guy and that he kind of wants me.”
Right now, Marshall — a 6-foot-5, 220-pound junior in the 2023 class — doesn’t have anything scheduled for next weekend, so he’s aiming to try and make it to Memorial Stadium for Clemson’s annual spring game on Saturday, April 9.
Even if he doesn’t make it to campus for the spring game, Marshall indicated that he will “for sure” be participating in the Dabo Swinney Camp this summer and have the chance to be coached up by Richardson.
What does it mean for the Volunteer State native to be receiving interest from Clemson?
“Clemson for years now has been a big-time school,” he said, “they won multiple national championships. And I’ve also looked it up and they don’t offer too many guys. They offer the guys they think will make them better and help them get to a national championship. I looked it up on 247 and they’ve only offered (three) tight ends. So, the fact that he’s talking to me is a really big interest to me.”
The Tigers have only dispensed offers to a trio of tight ends — Duce Robinson, Jaxon Howard and Reid Mikeska — in the 2023 class.
With Marshall potentially being a future recipient of a coveted Clemson offer, we wanted to find out more about his game,
“I would say I’m more of a hybrid tight end,” Marshall said. “I’ll go out, I’ll run routes and I can catch the ball, but also get down on the line and I’ll block. I think I’m a guy who can really make plays for anyone and make a play anytime.”
Marshall started to receive attention from college programs around the country after they got a hold of junior year film. While he picked up offers from Eastern Kentucky and Memphis in October 2021, he has since added offers from schools like Ole Miss, N.C. State, Liberty, Coastal Carolina, Indiana, Vanderbilt, Pitt and West Virginia, to name a few.
He hardly had any film during his sophomore year, so this past season is when he finally broke out. Marshall recorded around 850 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns across his junior campaign.
“I’d say hard work always pays off and I feel like once I started to get all those offers it was overwhelming,” Marshall said, “but as time has gone by, I’ve gotten used to it and I try not to let it stress me out as much and just do what’s best for me.”
— Photo for this article courtesy of Ben Marshall
Time to get the latest Clemson apparel to show your Tiger pride. Order your officially licensed Clemson gear right here!
