Clemson currently has 10 wide receivers on scholarship, but there wasn’t exactly strength in those last season.
The Tigers were without seven scholarship receivers at one point last season. As Clemson kicked off spring practice Wednesday, Tyler Grisham will have six scholarship wideouts to work with.
There’s one wide receiver, in particular, that Dabo Swinney and staff are looking forward to watching this spring and that’s Brannon Spector. The redshirt junior out of Calhoun (Ga.) High School missed the entire 2021 season due to respiratory issues, which stemmed from a previous bout with COVID-19.
“I can’t wait to see Spec out there,” Swinney said Wednesday. “He’s looked good in our mat drills and stuff, but I haven’t seen him play football awhile, so I’m excited to see him.”
Spector was back in the fold during Clemson’s first day of spring practice and started in the slot with Beaux Collins and Joseph Ngata on the outside. While Spector finally has a clean bill of health, Clemson will be without two wide receivers due to injuries this spring.
Swinney announced that EJ Williams will miss spring practice after recently having his knee scoped. Williams missed time due to injury last season and was held out of Clemson’s Bowl Game after he was deemed a close contact to a teammate who tested positive for the virus.
“It breaks my heart that EJ won’t be able to go because again, he was literally just last week tearing it up,” Swinney said. “This is something that just kind of needed to be fixed. We know who he is and what he can do. I think he’s got high-level ability.”
When back healthy, Williams will be a significant contributor for Clemson offensively. He’s not the only wide receiver who will be sidelined this spring though. Will Taylor, who is working his way back from an ACL injury, is still 4-to-5 weeks out from returning. He will begin a hitting program next week for the baseball team but will be unable to partake in any football drills.
“The biggest thing is just getting our numbers back,” Swinney said. “I mean to have seven scholarship wide receivers out, I’ve never been a part of that, as long as I’ve been coaching. Usually, you only have like nine on scholarship in college football, maybe 10. We’re going to have 10 this year…I’m super excited about it because we got some talented guys.”
The only positive Clemson was able to squeeze out of last year’s injuries to the receiver room was the emergence of Beaux Collins and Dacari Collins. They were thrown into the fire last season and now, according to Swinney, they’re both further along than they would have been, had Clemson stayed completely healthy in 2021.
Beaux was among Clemson’s first-string wide receivers during practice Wednesday, along with Ngata.
Before Swinney mentioned just how good Ngata has looked thus far, he made sure to knock on the table in front of him. Ngata had a great freshman year and as Swinney later said, these past two seasons have been a real challenge as he dealt with various injuries.
“Ngata has been amazing,” Swinney said. “He has been amazing this offseason. His leadership, he’s just done an awesome job. And again, just availability has been his issue. Hopefully, this is the year that he can stay on the field. If he can stay on the field, the rest will take care of itself. I promise you that. He’s a really talented player.”
For now, Clemson will be without Williams and Taylor, while Antonio Williams and Cole Turner won’t arrive until this summer.
“It’s a really good group, for sure,” Swinney said. “Adding Adam Randall to that group and getting him there. Obviously, Beaux and Troy (Stellato), we got a lot of guys that are available to us.”
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