Notes: Antonio Williams on health and NIL, Cade Klubnik says team never lost hope

Williams says he is healthy enough to play.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Wed Dec 27 20:09:01 GMT-04:00 2023

FERNANDINA BEACH, FL – Clemson held its last full practice of the season Wednesday afternoon, and new defensive ends coach Chris Rumph and several players were made available for interviews.

Let’s start with wide receiver Antonio Williams, who for the first time in a long while was seen without a yellow or green jersey. Williams played in just one game after injuring his ankle against Florida Atlantic in mid-September. He returned to play at Miami in late October but injured a toe and missed the remainder of the regular season.

He told me he was ready to go.

“I mean, I’m healthier than I was two weeks ago,” Williams said. “I'm not going to say I'm 100%, but there's no excuse -- I'm going to be out there. I'm good enough to be out here and play.”

I asked Williams about the current state of college football and rumors of tampering. He smiled and said there is always something going on.

“I am not going to get in all that, but NIL in this day, there's always enticing,” Williams said. “But you got to think about what you want long term and not just give up what you want in the moment. That means development as a player and a person. Other schools, they might be offering crazy amounts of money, but that's not the main goal, and that's just short term. Obviously, my goal is to get to the NFL.”

*Rumph said he was happy to answer head coach Dabo Swinney’s call and accept the job at Clemson. He was off and running in his first practice – as caught on camera – and said that is just his philosophy as a coach.

“My philosophy is to coach them hard, love them hard,” Rumph said. “I'm going to coach them hard every day and everything. Whether it's football or life, everything's going to be coached hard, but they know where it’s coming from.”

I asked him if there were any returning players that have caught his eye, and he smiled and said, “I don’t want to say their names yet, but watch out!”

*Quarterback Cade Klubnik was asked about the difference between his postseason this year and last year, when he was preparing to make his first collegiate start in the Orange Bowl against Tennessee.

“Yeah, I feel like a different player and just feel like a lot more confidence, a lot more,” Klubnik said. “Just prepared for the game and I've learned so much this year alone and made so many mistakes. It’s good that I get to learn from that, and I get to come back again and actually develop and continue to learn.”

Klubnik went on to say that the Tigers never lost hope after a 4-4 start.

“Just really proud of them. I mean, we had a decision to make that could go one of two ways. And we had a decision to make and we decided we're not going to quit on these seniors, we're not going to quit on these guys, not going to quit on the guy next to me and just put our head in the dirt, kept working and just decided, let's go win this first one,” Klubnik said. “And we won that one, and we said, let's go win the next one and the next one and the next one. And here we are now 8-4.”