A Bear on Your Tail: Clemson's receivers have younger players chasing them

Clemson's wide receivers are healthy heading into fall camp.

David Hood - Senior Writer - Tuesday, July 30 2024

CLEMSON – The talent is there at wide receiver. But as much as the Tigers need that talent to shine in 2024, they need that talent to stay healthy. And the older players? They have a bear on their tail.

The Tigers have dealt with their share of injury issues at wide receiver over the last several seasons and had high hopes heading into 2023. But Antonio Williams missed several games, Adam Randall dealt with a broken hand, Cole Turner missed the majority of the season with an abductor injury and Beaux Collins dealt with myriad issues throughout the season. Even stellar freshman Tyler Brown had to play hurt after dealing with an ankle injury.

The group, finally, is healthy.

“There's a ton of excitement and I think there's a lot of expectations that we have. And we've got guys that are healthy right now. Tyler Brown missed the spring recovering from a foot (injury), we got that fixed and cleaned up and he's knocking some rust off the summer and getting going. And same thing with Adam Randall,” wide receivers coach Tyler Grisham said. “He had a phenomenal spring. He came back and, after not practicing very much, showed a lot of really good things in the spring game. But now that we're here and there's guys are working together, they're excited. And I was talking to Antonio, and he's like, coach, we're so deep. We're so deep.”

Freshman Bryant Wesco was on campus during the spring and TJ Moore arrived in May. Both are expected to compete for playing time.

“Our guys want to play with top talent. They want to see freshmen coming in that can get the job done,” Grisham said. “They want to play with top talent in their own room and then also go against the great defense. They want to have a great defense to go against every day in practice. And so, I think with our roster, our complete team roster, everybody's excited. But talking about the receiver room, it is, for sure. I'd say it's the most excited I've been about our personnel and also just the variety we have. We can put anybody on the field and have really cool ways of structuring concepts based on receivers, running backs and tight ends. I think better than ever before. Coach Riley's going to have a lot of fun, trying to craft some of that. But I could go on and on and on. But man, there's a lot of expectation. I think a lot of excitement, and our guys are hungry to go do it here soon.”

The freshmen will get their chance early, and Grisham has proven he isn’t afraid to throw talented players into the proverbial fire.

“There's no question. There's no secret to how we've had injuries the last few years, but you look the last two seasons, we've had a freshman All-American receiver. Well, Tyler Brown was given more opportunity because Antonio was coming off a great freshman year, plays in a handful of games, and Tyler rose to the occasion and had a great season,” Grisham said. “I'm really excited about Noble (Johnson) and about Ronan (Hanafin). I mean, those are guys that had growing to do. They are working their tails off and had a great spring and summer. And so I'm excited about those guys. And you bring in Wesco and TJ Moore, they all know each other. They all know about each other before they even arrive. And so what I have seen starting this spring is that guys have really taken that next step.”

With so many talented younger players ready to play, the older players have a bear on their tail.

“They all want to play. They all want to be a starter. There is a little bit of that, what's the word for it? Almost like there's a bear on your tail,” Grisham said. "(Antonio Williams) talks about that a little bit with our team. There are guys coming in that are really good and want to play early. I better be on my A-game to stay where I'm at or get to where I want to get to. And so absolutely, and that's made room better. And like I said earlier, our guys want iron to sharpen iron. It's going to raise their game.”