Swinney discusses his talent at wide receiver

by Tony Crumpton - Assoc. Editor - Wed Nov 18 17:56:41 GMT-04:00 2015

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney answered questions during the ACC weekly media teleconference on Wednesday and had the following comments on his stable of talented wide receivers.

"Yeah, I mean, we take a lot of pride in how we recruit around here as far as bringing in the best of the best," Swinney said. "We've had great skill for a long time, and Artavis is just a true sophomore. He was a true freshman last year along with Deshaun, and he is just amazing. His development, he's been awesome."

Swinney talked about some of his impressive wide receivers in Hopper, Renfrow, McCloud, Thompson Cain.

"Germone Hopper is a guy that's been around here that had a nice game for us the other night," Swinney said. "(Hunter) Renfrow is a kid that was a recruited walk-on guy that has become a starter. This kid we think has got a great, great future. He's been a big-time impactful freshman for us. And then you mentioned Ray-Ray, a true freshman that we recruited to come in here and play and that's what he's doing, and then Deon Cain, we felt like Deon Cain had a chance to become a superstar, and he's emerging as a confident player now. He's made some huge plays. Trevion Thompson is another receiver that has big potential that's getting better every day."

Swinney believes that Charone Peake is finally getting healthy and performing like he knew the former Dorman star could.

"Charone has always had the ability," Swinney said. "Charone has just been a matter of putting it all together and being healthy, and boy, has he had quite a year for us in just these last six or seven ballgames," Swinney said. "He has been just so consistent and physical, and the ball has found its way in his hands a lot, and then his yards after catch and things like that. Really proud of him. So he's done a great job of leading that group for us."

Swinney says just check out the NFL and you can see the development of the wide receivers while they are at Clemson.

"So you know, I mean, again, you've got to recruit well because you're going to graduate players every year, and sometimes guys get hurt, and if you want to compete at the highest level, you've got to have guys ready to step up," Swinney said. "Our staff has done a great job not just recruiting good players but developing these guys, and we've been very, very consistent, especially at the receiver position. I mean, you just -- all you've got to do is look at the NFL and you see the amount of guys that have come out of this program, whether it's a guy like Sammy Watkins, who was a big-time player coming out of high school and left here as a great player, or it's a guy like Adam Humphries who nobody even really knew of and still a lot of people don't know of but he's got five catches for the Bucs as an undrafted free agent rookie this past Sunday. We've had all types of different guys come through here, and we take great pride in how we develop them."