Clemson defender on budding freshman star Peter Woods: “The hype is real”

Peter Woods is drawing plenty of praise from Clemson defensive vets.

by Ariana Pensy - Correspondent - Sun Apr 02 07:00:15 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON - Tigers safety RJ Mickens believes that this may be the most prepared freshman defensive class he has seen.

“I don’t know if I’ve seen a freshman class come in as ready as this defensive freshman class,” Mickens said. “You got Peter Woods, Khalil Barnes, Kylen Webb, TJ Parker … They’re miles above the average freshmen.”

However, the player who may have the most hype surrounding him is defensive lineman Peter Woods from Alabaster, Alabama. In high school, he averaged 5.8 tackles per game and had a total of 47 tackles for loss in the past two seasons. He’s also a large player at 6-foot 2, 300 pounds. Woods reported a total of 35 offers from schools including Alabama, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Miami, Florida State and South Carolina. Ultimately, he chose Clemson, officially enrolling this semester. With spring practice still in swing, he is making quite an impression on his new teammates.

“He’s just been dominating people. He’s just been up there, shedding guys and making plays and just going out there doing his thing,” Mickens said. “I know he’s a great player and he’s (come) out here and he’s proved it and definitely earned my respect as a player and a lot of other coaches’ respect too so he’s definitely been doing his thing.”

Mickens is not the only one taking note of Woods. Junior safety Andrew Mukuba has also noticed Woods on video and in practice.

“I was hearing about him. Like, the first couple of practices I was hearing about him and then when I was watching film, I started really paying close attention to Peter,” Mukuba said. “The hype is real man. Everybody (can see) the hype is real.”

The talent Woods is showing is quite promising for the Tigers. With defensive end Myles Murphy and defensive lineman Bryan Breese both declaring for the NFL Draft, Clemson has some big shoes to fill on the front end of the defense. Woods looks primed to fill this role and serve as a huge problem for opposing offensive linemen. In fact, he’s already causing problems for the O-Line.

“He’s just big and strong. He’s throwing guys,” Mukuba said. “It’s just impressive to see, like, because (I never really) paid attention to what the line (was) doing. I just worry about what the back end is doing … He’s (throwing) dudes that’ve been out here for a while and I can’t wait to see what he can do though when it comes time to play and for as long as he’s here, I think we’ll see how good he gets. I feel like he wants to keep getting better and that’s going to be scary, but he’s already good now.”

The spring game is on Saturday April 15 in Death Valley, providing fans with their first glance at Clemson’s new offense and Woods on defense to see what all of the hype is about.