Snowboarding Ajou Ajou drops weight, gains speed and focus

Ajou has been working hard in practice.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Mon Aug 16 14:59:12 GMT-04:00 2021

CLEMSON – Wide receiver Ajou Ajou held court inside the practice facility one day last week, talking one minute about the sport of hockey, the next about his teammates, and then about the heat in South Carolina in the summer. Along the way, he never lost his trademark smile, but it’s been his play on the field this August that has turned heads.

Ajou enters his second season with just two catches on his resume but made impressive strides during the spring and led all receivers in the spring game with six catches for 102 yards. He has continued his impressive work in August camp, despite not being a fan of the humidity in the south.

“Whoa, fall camp, oh my goodness, bro, it was crazy,” Ajou said. “The amount of sweat, and it was so humid, just, ugh. So, you just had to win in the mind. It was all right, I like the heat. But I like the cold, too, because I’m a snowboarder.”

Ajou made his way to Clemson from Canada (and a short time playing high school ball in Florida), but he had never turned all of his attention to football. Ajou had also never learned how to eat healthily and in January weighed 240 pounds (despite 10-percent body fat), and head coach Dabo Swinney told him he needed to make a decision – did he want to be Shannon Sharpe (a tight end) or Terrell Owens (a wide receiver).

The Canadian had to make a decision back in January which direction he wanted to go in after reaching 240 pounds, which Swinney says was a good 240 pounds on his 6-foot-3 frame.

“He was going to have to be one of the two and I think he could be either one. I really do,” Swinney said. “What he did not tell you is that he was 240 and was about ten percent body fat. I mean, just a freak. Unbelievable. Signs us all up for that right?

Ajou chose the route of Owens and has dropped to 222 pounds.

“Part of that was him, he comes from Canada, he is over in Clearwater and then all of sudden he gets in this program and the food is good and the next thing you know, ‘Wow! What happened?!’ He has never really trained like he has trained here with the lower body,” Swinney said. “So, he is putting on a bunch of muscle, so the next thing you know, he is 238. He is just in great shape, and he is probably five percent body fat now, and lean and confident.”

Ajou said he knew the right direction to take.

“I could still move … I was still good,” Ajou said of weighing 240 pounds. “I would say my cutting, my range of motion, wasn’t the best. Once I heard I could possibly go to tight end, I was like no, I’m not doing that.”

Now that he knows the playbook and has slimmed down, everything is moving faster.

“Literally. I’ll see the call, I’m lined up, everything — zoommm — it slows down for me,” Ajou said. “I’m like ‘OK, what we got, what coverage we got? OK, let’s do this. Things are clicking. Really getting the off-field stuff right, like school. Because coach always talks about how you do anything is how you everything. Really just stacking my days. Getting in my playbook. I study every day. I feel more comfortable. I can play faster. I’m not having to think, not second-guessing. I feel good. I feel really good actually.

"Last year I was kind of big. Kind of almost moved to tight end. [Clemson Director of Football Nutrition Performance] Paul Harrington now has me eating the right things and taking my nutrition seriously. I really only drink water. I lost like two percent body fat... I'm like eight percent body fat. I've just got to be consistent, that's the key word.”