Barrett Carter – Syndication Server

Three Clemson football players make final ESPN Top 100 for 2024 season

Parker, Klubnik, and one other made ESPN’s list.

With the 2024 college football season officially over, ESPN has unveiled its final rankings of the Top 100 overall players from the past year.

Analysts David Hale, Bill Connelly, Chris Low, Max Olson, Adam Rittenberg and Paolo Uggetti put the list together for ESPN. Three Clemson players made the panel’s top 100 rankings: quarterback Cade Klubnik, defensive end T.J. Parker, and linebacker Barrett Carter.

As to the order of those players, Parker was the highest-ranked Clemson player at No. 46 overall, between Alabama Crimson Tide offensive lineman Tyler Booker and Tennessee Volunteers cornerback Jermod McCoy. Klubnik was seven spots below Parker at No. 53, between Oklahoma Sooners linebacker Danny Stutsman and West Virginia offensive lineman Wyatt Milum. Carter was ranked No. 100 by ESPN.

Hale said of Klubnik:

“After an uneven first two seasons at Clemson, Klubnik finally put it all together in 2024 and emerged as one of the best QBs in the country. Klubnik topped 4,000 yards of total offense and racked up 43 touchdowns while throwing just six interceptions all season. His finish to 2024, however, might be the biggest reason for optimism moving forward. In his last three games, all vs. top-15 teams, he completed 62% of his throws for 878 yards with nine touchdowns. Klubnik likely enters 2025 as one of the favorites for the Heisman trophy.”

Neither Klubnik nor Parker were ranked in ESPN’s preseason Top 100. Both players will return to Clemson in 2025.

Hale said of Parker’s 2024 season:

“As good as any defender in the country over the second half of the season, Parker utterly dominated Clemson’s last six games on the D-line, in which he racked up 6 sacks, 12.5 tackles for loss and 4 forced fumbles. For the season, Parker ranked third in the ACC in sacks (11), second in TFLs (19.5) and second nationally in forced fumbles with six. He did all of that despite Clemson’s defensive line turning in its worst season overall in more than a decade. Expect even bigger things in 2025 as the Tigers reload upfront, building around Parker and fellow D-lineman Peter Woods.”

Carter had been the Tigers’ highest-ranked player in ESPN’s preseason rankings at No. 15 overall. He finished his four-year career at Clemson with 233 career tackles, 12.5 sacks and 31.5 tackles for loss.

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Clemson star linebacker declares for the 2025 NFL Draft

Clemson is losing a key member of their defense.

Barrett Carter has officially announced his decision to take the next step in his football journey. On Wednesday, the standout linebacker shared a heartfelt message with the Clemson community, reflecting on his time with the Tigers and his plans to pursue a career in the NFL.

“For the past four years, I’ve been incredibly blessed to wear orange and purple,” Carter wrote. “The Clemson family will always hold a special place in my heart, and I’m forever grateful for everything this university has given me.”

Carter expressed his gratitude to head coach Dabo Swinney, the coaching staff, and his teammates for believing in him and pushing him to grow as a player and leader. He also thanked God for the opportunity to play college football and shared his excitement about tackling the next challenge: achieving his dream of playing in the NFL.

“This journey won’t be easy,” Carter added, “but I’m ready to give it everything I’ve got. Thank you, Clemson. This is just the beginning.”

Carter capped off an impressive career with the Tigers, earning All-American and All-ACC honors twice. Over four seasons, he totaled 233 tackles, 31.5 tackles for loss, 12.5 sacks, two forced fumbles, and 12 passes defended. His final game came last weekend in Austin, where Clemson fell to Texas in the first round of the College Football Playoff.

Clemson linebacker named Butkus Award finalist

Barrett Carter is one of five finalists for the 2024 Butkus Award.

The Butkus Foundation on Monday announced five finalists for the 2024 Butkus Award, given annually to the nation’s best linebacker.

Clemson football’s Barrett Carter was named a finalist, joining Oklahoma Sooners linebacker Danny Stutsman, Chris Paul Jr. from the Ole Miss Rebels, the Georgia Bulldogs’ Jalon Walker, and UCLA’s Carson Schwesinger. The winner will be named by Dec. 10.

The following is a press release from Clemson Athletic Communications:

“The Butkus Foundation announced today that Clemson linebacker Barrett Carter has been named as one of five finalists for this year’s Butkus Award, presented annually to the nation’s top linebacker.

“Carter becomes the seventh Butkus Award finalist in school history, joining Levon Kirkland (1990), Keith Adams (2000), Dorian O’Daniel (2017), Tre Lamar (2018, Isaiah Simmons (2019) and Jeremiah Trotter Jr. (2023). Simmons became the first Butkus Award winner in school history when he collected the honor in 2019.

“This season, Clemson’s coaching staff has credited Carter with 63 tackles, 9.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks and seven pass breakups. Now in his fourth season in the program, Carter has played in 49 career games with 37 starts for the Tigers, helping Clemson extend its streak of consecutive nine-win seasons to 14 years, tied for the third-longest streak in major college football history. Carter has been a vocal leader of a Clemson senior class that this week will seek its 40th win in the last four years to become the 11th consecutive Clemson senior class to average 10 or more wins per season in their four-year careers.”

2024 Collegiate Finalists

Barrett Carter, Clemson
Chris Paul Jr., Mississippi
Carson Schwesinger, UCLA
Danny Stutsman, Oklahoma
Jalon Walker, Georgia

—via Clemson Athletic Communications

‘Back to looking like Clemson’: Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson impressed with Tigers

Dave Clawson was not short on praise for the Clemson Tigers ahead of Saturday’s Week 7 matchup.

Count Wake Forest football coach Dave Clawson as being impressed by what he’s seen so far from the Clemson Tigers.

The Demon Deacons’ coach, now in his 11th season in Winston-Salem, offered no shortage of high praise for Dabo Swinney and his team at his weekly press conference on Tuesday.

Clawson called the Tigers a “complete football team” and “the most dominant program in the ACC over the last decade.”

“What Dabo has built at Clemson, to me the consistency of it, the championship level program that he built and has been able to maintain, is one of the most impressive coaching jobs in the whole country,” Clawson said.

Clawson pointed to quarterback Cade Klubnik and marveled at his improvement from last season. Through five games, Klubnik has thrown for 1,219 yards and 14 touchdowns to two interceptions. He’s also ran for 168 yards on 28 carries, including two long touchdown runs against NC State in Week 4 and a week later against Stanford.

“I don’t know what they did to him in the offseason down there, but he looks bigger, stronger and faster. He’s a good pocket passer, but what really scares you is some of the plays he makes with his feet,” Clawson said, highlighting Klubnik’s touchdown run against NC State on the first possession in the Tigers’ 59-35 rout of the Wolfpack.

Clawson also singled out tailback Phil Mafah, who had a season-high 154 rushing yards in last week’s 29-13 Clemson win at Florida State. “You try to arm-tackle him and it’s not going to turn out too well,” he said.

The Tigers’ wide receiver corps drew particular praise from Clawson.

“To me, they’re back to looking like Clemson,” he said while pointing out Antonio Williams, Bryant Wesco and T.J. Moore. “When I first got here, this was Wide Receiver U., and I think it kind of fell off a bit and now it looks like they’re coming back to where they were.”

On the biggest difference in what he’s seen from the Tigers so far this year, Clawson pointed to the offensive line.

“They’ve got 113 career starts. It’s a veteran group, and coaching matters,” he said. “It’s a veteran offensive line coach they hired in Matt Luke who has done a phenomenal job with them. These guys are playing physically, assertively and with confidence. The way they take the ball and point things out, the physicality that they’re playing with, and what that allows them to do is be balanced.

“This is now a football team that can run and throw the football and they can beat you either way. Those are the teams you hate playing against. So, whatever tweaking they did in the offseason with (Garrett Riley) and (Matt Luke), I think they’ve found their sweet spot.

“I’d enjoy watching it if we didn’t have to play against it,” Clawson said jokingly.

On defense, Clawson said that Clemson was “still Clemson.” He mentioned the play of defensive end T.J. Parker and called linebacker Barrett Carter “one of the best linebackers in the country.”

“It’s always one of the top units in the country,” Clawson said of the Tigers’ defense. “It starts up front for them; it always has. Every defensive lineman that starts for them is over 300 pounds and where they’re most impressive is the depth. They have nine guys that are averaging over 25 plays per game.”

Clemson and Wake Forest will kick off at noon ET Saturday in Winston-Salem. The game can be seen on ESPN. The Tigers are ranked No. 10 in this week’s AP Top 25 poll and No. 11 in the Coaches Poll.

The Tigers have won 15 straight in the series with Wake Forest dating back to 2009. Two years ago, Clemson outlasted the Deacs in a 51-45 double-overtime victory in a game that saw both teams ranked in the Top 25; the Tigers were ranked No. 5, Wake Forest No. 21.

“Always a tough matchup, but always a great challenge,” Clawson said of playing Clemson. “The last two years, it’s been a very competitive football game. We need people to show up and wear black. We had a home field advantage in this stadium two years ago and it helped, and it would be great if we had it again.

Saints’ scouts have attended back-to-back Clemson games

The New Orleans Saints have had scouts including Jeff Ireland at the last two Clemson football matchups against Stanford and Florida State:

The New Orleans Saints scouting department is always out in force throughout the year, and sometimes you can get an idea of who they are looking at based on where their scouts are seen. They’re already hard at work assembling the team’s big board of prospects for thee 2025 NFL draft.

In the last two weeks, they have been seen at Clemson matchups. Firstly, Jeff Ireland was in the press box for Clemson versus Stanford on Sept. 28 per Tiger Illustrated’s Toby Corriston. Then there were scouts from the Saints at Doak Campbell Stadium to watch Florida State against Clemson, per The State Newspaper’s Chapel Fowler.

These two matchups ended in wins for the Clemson Tigers, which, depending on whether or not the Saints were specifically there to see them or not, could be a good indication for their scouting process of certain players. As of now, some of the top prospects from Clemson are:

RT Blake Miller (No. 55 on PFF big board)
LB Barrett Carter (No. 82 on PFF big board)
QB Cade Klubnik (No. 161 on PFF big board)
TE Jake Briningstool (No. 185 on PFF big board)

Each of these positions could be positions of need no doubt, especially tight end as the production from that position has been less than expected this season. All of these four players also fit into the usual height weight metrics for the Saints, especially so for Blake Miller who registers in at 6-foot-6 and 315 pounds. We will see how this progresses throughout the season and if they are seen again at Clemson, as they recently dipped into the Tigers’ talent pool in 2023 taking Bryan Bresee.

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Clemson’s Defensive X-Factor against Appalachian State

Clemson needs this linebacker to step up in Week 2.

After Clemson’s brutal Week 1 loss to the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs, Clemson linebacker Barrett Carter has to rebound against Appalachian State today.

Carter, talent-wise, is arguably the best linebacker in the country. Talent doesn’t take you all the way, though, with the star on defense returning for another season with the Tigers to refine his game. While there’s no doubt he will continue to improve as the year goes on and further work towards solidifying himself as a first-round pick in the 2025 NFL draft, we saw some of the holes in his game against the Bulldogs.

A few poor angles and bad tackling mechanics kept Carter quiet against the Bulldogs, with 3 total tackles on the day. Clemson simply needs more from their star linebacker.

Carter is due for a big game against App State as he and the team look to get back on track.

Seven Clemson Tigers make list of Top 150 college football players for 2024 season

Barrett Carter and Peter Woods were the two highest-ranked Clemson players on CBS Sports’ list, which also included T.J. Parker, Demonte Capehart, Phil Mafah, Khalil Barnes and Blake Miller.

CBS Sports unveiled its rankings of the Top 151 college football players entering the 2024 season Monday. Seven Clemson players made the list.

As with ESPN’s rankings last week, senior linebacker Barrett Carter was the Tigers’ top-ranked player at No. 24 overall. Carter ranked one spot ahead of Notre Dame cornerback Benjamin Morrison and one spot below Ole Miss receiver Tre Harris on CBS Sports’ list.

College football analyst Blake Brockermeyer said of Carter:

“A versatile three-down ‘backer who likes to play in the opponent’s backfield, Barrett is an explosive and high-ceiling talent who has enormous potential and upside as a former 5-star recruit. A converted high school safety prospect, Carter has the ability to match up vs. tight ends and backs in coverage and did not allow a touchdown last season. He missed too many tackles, 12, last season in the box and can do a better job of finishing in the run game. Cleaning that up is likely a big reason he returned for his senior season. Jeremiah Trotter Jr. is gone, now it’s Carter’s turn to be the star of Clemon’s defense.”

ESPN had Carter ranked as the No. 15 overall player in college football. The Peach State native has been named to various preseason All-America teams and award watch lists, including the Butkus Award, the Bednarik Award and the Wuerffel Trophy.

In three seasons with the Tigers, Carter is credited with 170 tackles (21 for loss), nine sacks, 15 pass breakups, three interceptions, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries in 38 games.

Carter was the highest-ranked ACC player on CBS Sports’ list, which also included defensive tackle Peter Woods (No. 76 overall), defensive lineman T.J. Parker (No. 78), defensive tackle Demonte Capehart (No. 98), running back Phil Mafah (No. 109), safety Khalil Barnes (No. 116) and offensive tackle Blake Miller (No. 138).

Woods has been on various preseason All-America teams and watch lists, including the Bednarik Award and Bronko Nagurski Trophy.

CBS Sports ranked Colorado cornerback Travis Hunter the No. 1 overall player in the nation entering the 2024 season.

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Clemson linebacker unit ranked Top 3 in college football

Clemson’s linebacker unit is top tier.

Clemson is heading into another season with one of the best linebacker units in the country.

Anchored by the exceptional All-American Barrett Carter, the Tigers’ linebacker corps is not only experienced but also features fresh talent with the addition of 5-star recruit Sammy Brown, one of the premier prospects from the 2024 class. This group is loaded with talent from top to bottom and has some serious potential to serve as the backbone of what promises to be a formidable Clemson defense. With a blend of seasoned leadership and dynamic new energy, this unit is poised to dominate and set the tone for the team throughout the season.

Athlon Sports recently released their linebacker unit rankings for the 2024 season, with Clemson’s landing at No. 3.

Jeremiah Trotter Jr. leaves big shoes to fill in the second level of Clemson’s standout defense, but coach Dabo Swinney’s group caught a break when Barrett Carter (an Athlon Sports first-team All-American for ’24) opted to return instead of bolting for the NFL Draft. Junior Wade Woodaz is expected to settle in at middle linebacker after working as a solid reserve the last two years. True freshman Sammy Brown is a name to watch at this position as well, with Kobe McCloud and Jamal Anderson also likely to factor into the mix for reps.

Clemson isn’t overly deep at the position, but their talent in the unit is ridiculous. There may be two first-round pick linebackers in this unit this season.

While the defensive line tends to get a lot of the hype, Clemson’s linebackers will once again be outstanding.

Two Clemson standouts on ESPN Top 100 college football player rankings for 2024

Barrett Carter and Peter Woods made ESPN’s Top 100 college football players list for 2024.

ESPN unveiled its Top 100 rankings of the best college football players heading into the 2024 season on Thursday, with two Clemson defensive standouts making the list.

Senior linebacker Barrett Carter was ranked No. 15 overall, one spot below LSU linebacker Harold Perkins at No. 14 and one spot ahead of Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel at No. 16.

Carter has been named to a slew of preseason All-America teams and various award watch lists, including the Butkus Award, the Bednarik Award and the Wuerffel Trophy.

ESPN said of Carter’s ranking at No. 15:

“Carter turned heads after the season-opening loss to Duke last year when he said he did not feel as if he was in game shape. He still had a solid season with 9.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, 6 pass breakups, an interception and a fumble recovery, but he returned for his senior season with more in mind — domination.”

In three years at Clemson, Carter has been credited by the coaching staff with 170 tackles (21 for loss), nine sacks, 15 pass breakups, three interceptions, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries in 38 games.

Carter was the highest-ranked ACC player on ESPN’s Top 100 list.

Clemson defensive tackle Peter Woods also made ESPN’s list at No. 50, one spot below Texas junior defensive end Trey Moore and one spot ahead of Arizona sophomore quarterback Noah Fifita.

Woods has also appeared on various preseason All-America teams and watch lists, including the Bednarik Award and Bronko Nagurski Trophy.

Per ESPN:

“As expected, the 6-2, 215-pound Woods had a Freshman All-America-caliber season for the Tigers last year. But headed into this season, Clemson wants to take advantage of his versatility and plans to play him at both defensive tackle (his natural position) and defensive end. Coach Dabo Swinney called Woods one of the team’s “best pass rushers” and said simply, “He’ll play everywhere.”

A four-star recruit out of Thompson High School in Alabaster, Ala., near Swinney’s hometown of Pelham, Woods was credited with 27 tackles (2.5 for loss) and a forced fumble in 12 games last season.

ESPN ranked Tennessee defensive end James Pearce Jr. at No. 1 overall in their Top 100 rankings.

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Barrett Carter named preseason All-American by 247Sports, CBS Sports

Carter is one of the best defenders in the game.

The Clemson football program heads into the 2024 college football season with one of the best defenses in the country and one of the best defensive players.

Carter, projected as an early-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, turned heads by opting to return to Clemson. This unexpected decision underscores his dedication to refining his game and boosting his draft stock for 2025. Last season, Carter stood out in 11 games, finishing second on the team with 59 tackles, adding nine tackles for loss, and contributing three sacks.

Recently, 247Sports/CBS Sports released their preseason All-America teams, with Carter named second-team defense All-American. Linebacker is a tough spot to land in the first-team at with some ridiculous talent at the position heading into this season.

Ahead of Carter is LSU’s Harold Perkins, Iowa’s Jay Higgins, and Oklahoma’s Danny Stutsman. Statistically, Carter was likely the worst of the four players last season, but from a talent perspective, I’d argue he’s No. 2 behind Perkins. LSU’s star linebacker had a similar 2023, where he was great but not quite as good as people expected.

Carter will prove why he should be a first-team selection as the centerpiece of the Tigers’ defense.