Clemson Football

Clemson linebacker Trenton Simpson could be one of the top defenders in the country next season after standing out among his teammates in 2021.

"The Clemson defense was trash last year, but Simpson is that dude," an NFL general manager told ESPN's Matt Miller. "He's going to crush the combine and should be the ACC DPOY. Hopefully they unleash him a little more this year because he can really do it all."

The Tigers did rank second in the nation with 14.9 points allowed per game while finishing eighth in yards allowed per contest last year. Inconsistency was an issue as the squad finished 10-3, with its most losses since 2014.

Simpson finished the season with 64 tackles, including 12 tackles for loss, with six sacks and two passes defended.

The 5-star recruit was the top outside linebacker and No. 26 overall player in the 2020 class, per 247Sports' composite rankings. He appeared in 12 games as a freshman, tallying four sacks and 6.5 tackles for loss mostly coming off the bench.

Simpson showed his potential as a starter last season, and he is now ready to make an even bigger impact in 2022.

ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. listed Simpson as the No. 25 overall player in the 2023 NFL draft class, noting the linebacker's "explosion at the snap."

With another productive season, he could end up being drafted even earlier next April.

Pressuring the quarterback has never been more imperative than in today's pass-happy climate. To that end, Clemson added a key piece to its defensive line for 2023 with a commitment from Peter Woods.

The Alabaster, Alabama, native is the No. 3 defensive lineman in 247Sports' composite rankings. He's also the 23rd-best player in the country.

In March 2021, Gabe Brooks of 247Sports compared Woods to former Michigan standout Rashan Gary, who was the No. 12 overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft:

Stout defensive line prospect with potential for personnel flexibility across multiple schemes. Good height and enough frame space to add more mass. ... Flashes impressive suddenness and functional athleticism relative to size and age. Displays consistent disengaging ability to shed vs. run. Flashes some pass-rush nuance beyond his years. Athletic enough to be a threat from the backside. Strong at the point of attack and arrives at the ball with conviction. Seems like an extremely high-floor prospect with plenty of long-term potential as well.

A leg injury cost Woods all but six games of the 2020 season with Thompson High School. The squad still reached the state title game, where he had five tackles.

The Warriors were back in the state championship again in 2021. Getting to enjoy a full season, Woods posted 92 total tackles, 11 sacks and 26 tackles for loss. He was a terror for opposing players.

Thompson boasted another 5-star talent on defense in Jeremiah Alexander. Alexander, an Alabama commit, was the top edge defender in 247Sports' 2022 composite rankings. Pairing Alexander and Woods together almost wasn't fair.

With the former moving on to the Crimson Tide, the latter has the opportunity to showcase himself in an even bigger way. Tigers fans will be eager to see what he does in 2022 before arriving in Clemson.

As much as Clemson has benefited from stellar quarterback play to become a perennial College Football Playoff contender, the front seven has often set the tone for the Tigers.

The program didn't have a single defensive lineman selected in the 2020, 2021 or 2022 NFL drafts, though. It's not entirely a coincidence Clemson has had slowly diminishing returns since winning a national championship in 2018.

Perhaps Woods can help the Tigers return to the point where they boast one of the most fearsome front sevens in FBS.

Jamal Anderson, a 247Sports 4-star linebacker recruit out of Georgia and the son of former NFL running back Jamal Anderson, committed to Clemson on Monday.

"First off I would say my relationship I have with the coaches and how they truly make it feel like home," he told Hayes Fawcett of On3.com about why he chose the Tigers.

"Coach [Dabo] Swinney is a great head coach and an even greater person. Coach [Wes] Goodwin, along with other coaches on the staff, have shown to have great development. Their program to help develop you as a man and set you up for life after football is also amazing and something I want to be a part of."

Anderson also cited the possibility of being able to play early on his college career as one of the reasons for his commitment.

Oh, and Clemson's pedigree as one of the top programs in the country.

"Obviously you want to win and that's exactly what Clemson does year after year, and I'm excited to be a part of the culture," he told Fawcett.

Per 247Sports' composite rankings, Anderson is considered the No. 173-ranked recruit in the class of 2023, the No. 17 player from the state of Georgia and the No. 11 linebacker in the country.

He posted 78 tackles (seven for loss) and four sacks in the 2021 season and earned all-state accolades.

"Excels as a space defender. A natural mover with range. Reads routes, diagnoses quickly and makes plays on the ball," On3.com's director of scouting, Charles Power, wrote in his scouting report of the 6'3", 195-pound Anderson. "Can run with and cover slot wide receivers downfield. A quick processor who sees the game quickly in space. ... Will need to fill out and continue adding mass and strength to better hold up against the run at the next level."

Clemson was just one of two schools Anderson visited, along with Utah.

His father spent eight years in the NFL as a running back for the Atlanta Falcons and was a Pro Bowler and first-team All-Pro selection in the 1998 season. He rushed for 5,336 yards and 34 touchdowns in his career, with 2001 being his final season.

Anderson's sister, Mia, is on the Georgia Bulldogs' track and field team.

Day 2 of the 2022 NFL draft has come to a close, and two players are surprisingly still on the board in Texas A&M running back Isaiah Spiller and Clemson wide receiver Justyn Ross. 

The only running backs that came off the board on Friday were Breece Hall, who was selected by the New York Jets, Kenneth Walker III, who was picked by Seattle Seahawks, James Cook, who was selected by the Buffalo Bills, Tyrion Davis-Price, who was selected by the San Francisco 49ers, and Brian Robinson Jr., who was selected by the Washington Commanders. 

That said, the Houston Texans, Atlanta Falcons and Arizona Cardinals could be potential landing spots for Spiller on Day 3. 

Houston enters the 2022 campaign with Marlon Mack and Rex Burkhead as its top running backs. While Mack is talented, just two years removed from a 1,000-plus yard rushing season, Spiller would help elevate the group. 

Spiller recorded back-to-back seasons of more than 1,000 rushing yards at Texas A&M and finished the 2021 season with 179 carries for 1,011 yards and six touchdowns. He can also be a receiving threat, having caught 25 passes for 189 yards and one score last season.

The Falcons, meanwhile, used picks on quarterback Desmond Ridder and wide receiver Drake London over the last two days, but they still need a running back. Atlanta is set to enter the 2022 season with Cordarrelle Patterson, Mike Davis and Damien Williams as its top running backs. That's not going to cut it. 

The same can be said for the Cardinals. While Arizona does have James Conner locked up, it needs depth behind him after losing Chase Edmonds to the Miami Dolphins in free agency. 

Wide receivers have been the name of the game in this year's draft, with 11 more receivers coming off the board on Day 2. That said, the Baltimore Ravens, Green Bay Packers and Cleveland Browns could be looking to add a receiver come Day 3. 

Ross wasn't viewed as one of the elite receivers available, but he's still worth a pick and has tremendous upside. Although he caught just 46 passes for 514 yards and three touchdowns in 2021, he had 1,000 yards and nine scores as a freshman in 2018.

The Ravens are in need of a receiver after trading Marquise "Hollywood" Brown to the Arizona Cardinals during the first round of the draft on Thursday. They have Rashod Bateman, Tylan Wallace, James Proche II and Devin Duvernay as their top targets in 2022, but that's not ideal moving forward.

Green Bay, meanwhile, selected North Dakota State's Christian Watson on Day 2, but another receiver would be welcomed by the Packers following the departure of Davante Adams to the Las Vegas Raiders. 

Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb, Sammy Watkins and Amari Rodgers currently project to be the Packers' top receivers in 2022. Adding Ross wouldn't change that, though it would give the team some more depth. 

The Browns are in a similar situation. After losing Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham Jr. over the last year, the franchise could use another pass catcher. That said, Cleveland did add Amari Cooper this offseason, but adding Ross would drive competition behind him.

Aside from Cooper, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Rashard Higgins, Anthony Schwartz and Jakeem Grant are Cleveland's top receivers. And while the Browns did draft Purdue's David Bell on Friday, it wouldn't be surprising to see them pick up another receiver on Day 3.

Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney commented Saturday on his hefty salary, one day after opposing any movement to "professionalize" college sports.

According to ESPN's Chris Low, Swinney said the following when asked about those who bring up high coaching salaries as a reason  college athletes should be paid:

"Well, [Alabama head football coach] Nick Saban is 70 years old. I'm 52 years old. None of us set markets on what we do. We live in a capitalist society. The head of Delta probably makes a lot more than the people who are checking your baggage in, but those people are as vital as anybody. None of us set markets on what we do. It's a free market we live in, in anything. It's just that our jobs are so visible and so public. I can tell you this: None of us got into coaching to make money, but I don't apologize for being successful."

Per Low, Swinney said Friday that while he isn't against the NCAA's name, image and likeness (NIL) rules allowing college athletes to make money, he has concerns about what it could lead to:

"I am against anything that devalues education. That's what I'm against. I am for anything that incentivizes education. People will come after me because I've always said that I'm against the professionalism of college athletics, and I am. Kids don't know what they don't know. That's a slippery slope if you professionalize college athletics, and now you've got salaries and taxes and you can fire kids on the spot and they've got to pay for their tuition and they pay for their housing and everything else. Athletic directors would sign up for that in a heartbeat. They'd save money."

When USA Today released its list of the highest-paid head coaches in college football in November, Swinney was fourth on the list with an average annual salary of over $8.3 million.

Swinney suggested to Low that his greatest concern with regard to the NIL guidelines is they will be used as a recruiting tool, calling the lack of rules "out of control" and "unsustainable," as well as "an absolute mess and a train wreck."

When asked by Low if he felt college football coaches make too much money, Swinney didn't provide a definitive answer, but he brought up the impact that Saban has had on the University of Alabama and expressed his belief that Saban is "probably underpaid" despite being the highest-paid college football coach.

In terms of impact, there is no denying that Swinney has been hugely positive for the Clemson football program during his 14 years at the helm.

The Tigers are a remarkable 150-36 under him, having won seven ACC titles and two national championships.

Clemson has also won 10 or more games in each of the past 11 seasons. Before the start of that streak, the Tigers hadn't won 10 or more games in a season since 1990.

Given that Clemson reached the national title game in four of five seasons from 2015 to 2019, it was considered something of a step back when the team missed the College Football Playoff and went "only" 10-3 in 2021.

That speaks to the winning culture Swinney has created at Clemson, and it underscores why he is one of the most well-compensated coaches in collegiate athletics.

Clemson football head coach Dabo Swinney foresees a "complete blowup" of college football in which Power Five schools would break away from the remainder of Division I-FBS to form their own division.

"I think there's going to be a complete blowup...especially in football, and there needs to be," Swinney told ESPN's Chris Low: 

"I think eventually there will be some type of break and another division. Right now, you got everybody in one group, and it's not feasible. Alabama has different problems than Middle Tennessee, but we're trying to make them all the same and it's just not. I think you'll have 40 or 50 teams and a commissioner and here are the rules."

The last seismic change in the Division I college football structure occurred in 1978, when Division I was split into an upper tier (I-A) and lower tier (I-AA). Those tiers have since been renamed FCS and FBS, respectively.

Now it appears Swinney is advocating for an even further separation of Division I-FBS, which will consist of 131 teams in 2022 over 10 conferences (plus seven independent schools):

There's so much bureaucracy and you can't get anything done in a real-time manner. It's frustrating. The communication is not good and the rules are outdated. Again, there have been a lot of positives when it comes to the scholarships. But you've got all these people voting on things, and it's just not apples to apples.

Another big change has already occurred throughout college athletics with the adoption of the NIL (name, image, likeness) rule, whereas athletes can finally benefit from the opportunity to use their image for money-making opportunities (e.g. sponsorships).

Swinney reiterated his previous stance on NIL: He claims he isn't against the policy but has issues with "anything that devalues education":

I am against anything that devalues education. That's what I'm against. I am for anything that incentivizes education. People will come after me because I've always said that I'm against the professionalism of college athletics, and I am. Kids don't know what they don't know. That's a slippery slope if you professionalize college athletics, and now you've got salaries and taxes and you can fire kids on the spot and they've got to pay for their tuition and they pay for their housing and everything else.

Athletic directors would sign up for that in a heartbeat. They'd save money.

Per Low, Swinney said it's good that players can profit off their name and image but that it creates other problems.

There's no rules, no guidance, no nothing. It's out of control. It's not sustainable. It's an absolute mess and a train wreck, and the kids are going to be the ones who suffer in the end. There are going to be a lot of kids that end up with no degrees and make decisions based on the wrong things.

Swinney, 52, has coached Clemson since 2008. The Tigers have gone 150-36 in his tenure, including two national titles.

Five-star quarterback Arch Manning has reportedly removed Clemson from his list of prospective schools, according to Steve Wiltfong of 247Sports. 

Manning reportedly has Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss and Texas toward the top of his list, Wiltfong notes.

The young star isn't taking visits and is currently focused on the basketball season. However, Wiltfong detailed what's next for the most-recruited quarterback in the nation. 

"The next step in his process will be trying to get out and see some of his teams participate in spring practice and get a feel for what that looks like," he wrote. 

Manning is ranked as the top quarterback in the 2023 class, per 247Sports Composite. He is also the No. 1 ranked quarterback out of Louisiana and the No. 1 overall player in the 2023 class, coming in higher than Malachi Nelson. 

Gabe Brooks, a midlands region recruiting analyst for 247Sports, said Manning is a "natural pocket passer with pro-style feel, but good functional athlete with terrific off-schedule instincts and playmaking ability." 

Brooks also says Manning has a first-round NFL Draft ceiling, which certainly doesn't come as a surprise considering who he is related to.

The 6'4", 215-pound quarterback is the son of Cooper Manning, and his uncles are legendary NFL quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning. He is also Archie Manning's grandson. Archie was a two-time Pro Bowler over his 13 NFL seasons.