Heading into his first fall camp at Clemson, Torinao Pride, Jr. knows that he’ll have a chance to play and play early.
Mike Reed doesn’t recruit players to sit on the bench.
“He did preach that when I was getting recruited, but I knew that before I even picked Clemson, “Pride said Sunday during Dear Old Clemson’s welcome freshman event in Clemson. “I was enrolling early and my goal was to get on the field as early as possible. So I just knew wherever I went, I’m gonna study that playbook every night and every day.”
Since he arrived on campus in January as a mid-year enrollee, Pride said players like Sheridan Jones and some of the other cornerbacks in Reed’s room have helped him come along. It’s also been helpful that he arrived in Tiger Town at the same time as Jeadyn Lukus.
“I got to look up to the older guys, especially like Sheridan,” Pride said. “When I first got here, I’m asking him, ‘What do I got on here?’ and it’s kinda hard coming in knowing everything when they give you a thick playbook package and you gotta know it by Spring 1 practice and installs every day.”
There still may be some things that Pride is iffy on, but in that case, he’ll seek out Jones for some guidance.
In any event, Pride quickly learned the playbook and received some extended playing time with Jones injured and Fred Davis II in a green jersey (no contact) for the majority of the spring. It allowed for the freshman cornerback out of East St. Louis (Ill.) to start Clemson’s Orange & White Spring Game.
“Spring was great,” he said. “I had a great time on the field. I had fun. At first, I was super nervous because of all the fans. I knew I was starting going in, so I just wanted to make the best of it and do what I do.”
Out of all the schools that were recruiting Pride, Clemson was really thin at the cornerback position. Clemson only took one cornerback commitment — Nate Wiggins — in the class of 2021. Pride said he didn’t know any other school recruiting him in a situation like that. At the same time, Andrew Booth, Jr. and Mario Goodrich were preparing to leave for the NFL.
That was a huge selling point for Pride and not so much the Name, Image and Likeness. In choosing Clemson, NIL was never at the forefront of Pride’s mind. He views Sunday’s event as an opportunity and an added bonus to everything that Clemson has to offer its student-athletes.
“I don’t really care about all the NIL stuff,” Pride said. “The NIL stuff don’t mean nothing if you aren’t playing on the field and I just felt like I had a better chance of playing here early.”
In the meantime, Pride is “super excited” to get back on the field with his teammates when fall camp rolls around come Friday, Aug. 5.
Just how special can Clemson’s defense be this season?
“Great,” Pride said. “I feel like we could be the top defense in college football, honestly. Everybody’s flying around and getting to the ball. We have a great DC (Wesley Goodwin).”
