Hunter Johnson will finish his college football career with one last season at Clemson, something Clemson coach Dabo Swinney didn’t know was possible when initially speaking to the Tigers’ newest quarterback about returning to the program.
In describing how the idea of Johnson returning to Clemson came about, Swinney recently said the two have stayed in contact even after Johnson left after his freshman season to play at Northwestern. But when Johnson called Swinney after this past season to discuss coming back to the program, Swinney said it was in a coaching capacity.
“He’s wanting to know if he could help coach and be a student intern or helper while he’s getting his MBA,” Swinney recalled of their phone conversation. “And of course I’m like, ‘Heck yeah. You kidding me? That’d be awesome.’”
That’s when Swinney said Johnson informed him he actually had one more year of eligibility remaining, which came as a surprise to Swinney. After playing his freshman season at Clemson in 2017, Johnson sat out his first year at Northwestern to satisfy transfer rules in place at the time. He then played three seasons for the Wildcats, accounting for 898 yards of offense in 11 games during that time.
“I just literally kind of was kidding with him,” Swinney said. “I was like, ‘Hey, you better watch out. We might have to pull a Zeb Nolan and throw you in the game.’”
The reference was to South Carolina quarterback Zeb Nolan, who joined the Gamecocks’ program this past season initially as a graduate assistant coach after playing five seasons at Iowa State and North Dakota State. Injuries at the position left first-year coach Shane Beamer with no choice but to add Nolan to the roster and play him in a few games.
Johnson reminded Swinney of his COVID year, an additional year of eligibility granted to all fall-sport athletes by the NCAA in response to the first year of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States in 2020. It’s what Johnson will use to suit up with the rest of Clemson’s quarterbacks next season instead of helping coach them.
“I started thinking, I was like, ‘Holy cow. That is crazy,’” Swinney said. “So that’s how we kind of got to that point, and it worked out. He’s excited about it.”
Whether or not Johnson actually gets in a game during his second go-round with the Tigers remains to be seen, but Swinney said Johnson understands he’s returning to largely provide experienced depth behind incumbent D.J. Uiagalelei and five-star signee Cade Klubnik, who could find themselves in competition for the starting job beginning this spring.
“He’s just an awesome young man. He’s very mature,” Swinney said of Johnson. “He’ll work as hard as anybody, and he’ll be as prepared as anybody. It’s very rare that you’re going to find somebody that will come in here with that type of mindset. So it’s exciting. I think he’s going to be great for D.J. and for Cade from a leadership standpoint.”
With Taisun Phommachanh in the transfer portal, former walk-ons Hunter Helms and Billy Wiles are Clemson’s only other quarterbacks back from last season that have played in a college game. Between his time at Clemson and Northwestern, Johnson has appeared in 18 games.
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