Clemson baseball coach Monte Lee recently gave some insight into what it’s like for he and football coach Dabo Swinney to share the Tigers’ latest two-sport athlete.
Will Taylor will suit up for the baseball team at some point this spring after spending the fall playing football. That was always the plan once Taylor, a standout multi-sport athlete at Dutch Fork High School, bypassed the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft in the summer to enroll at Clemson.
“It was a simple process,” Lee said. “Coach Swinney and I spoke about Will once we got Will through the draft. What Dabo told Will in that recruiting process is exactly what’s happened here. When it’s football season, he’s a football player. When it’s baseball season, he’s a baseball player. And it’s really that simple.”
One of the nation’s top baseball prospects during his prep days, Taylor would likely be competing to start in Clemson’s outfield on opening day if not for a torn ACL he suffered during football season. Taylor, a receiver who was primarily used as a punt returner this fall, played five games for the football team before sustaining the injury.
Taylor is closing in on being four months removed from reconstructive surgery. Lee said Taylor trying to recover from an injury while pulling double duty has been far more of a challenge than he and Swinney deciding how to split up his time between sports.
“You have to focus a lot of your attention as a true freshman to play wide receiver at Clemson University. And then he had the injury. He’s faced that adversity where now he’s got to go through that rehab process, and this is the first time he’s had to deal with that. Now he’s coming over to a brand new group of guys that he hasn’t been around and he’s got to get acclimated to them.”
Taylor’s involvement with baseball means he wouldn’t participate in spring football practice even if he was healthy enough to do so. As for a timetable on when Taylor might be able to suit up for the baseball team, Lee recently provided TCI with that update.
The baseball team begins its season with a three-game series against Indiana starting Feb. 18 at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.
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