Freshman standouts sharpen each other's skills to strong Clemson debuts

Tyler Brown says playing fellow young standouts such as Khalil Barnes made him better.

by Ariana Pensy - Correspondent - Wed Nov 29 13:30:13 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON - For the second season in a row, a true freshman receiver finished the regular season with the most receiving yards for Clemson.

Last season it was Antonio Williams, and this year, it was Tyler Brown. Brown played in all 12 games this season and currently has 519 yards. Part of what Brown attributes to his success is the play from fellow true freshman Khalil Barnes.

“That freshman class, we got some dawgs with Khalil Barnes. He’s one of the ones. He going to be good, he going to be great. I really believe in that,” Brown said. “Going up against him in practice, iron (sharpens) iron. I’m in the best situation I can be in because of him.”

Barnes had his best game of the season going against the Gamecocks. Not only did he score the only touchdown of the game for the Tigers on a scoop and score, but he also had an interception on the very next play. That made him the first Clemson player with turnovers on back-to-back plays since fellow safety Brian Dawkins, who is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The defense, including Barnes, was key to the Tigers winning against South Carolina. The defense held redshirt senior quarterback Spencer Rattler to just 112 passing yards, his lowest since 2021, when he played for Oklahoma and was not even the starter. Rattler’s offense was also held to just seven points, their lowest since 2022 against Florida. The offense could not put up a single touchdown, but Brown said that when the defense plays as well as they did, it takes pressure off the offense.

“That’s the best thing about this program. You don’t have to be perfect … when you got guys like Xavier Thomas, Khalil Barnes,” Brown said. “They’re going to make plays, and they’re going to make stuff happen and then we going to get that ball back.”

Special teams were also crucial to this victory. Graduate kicker Jonathan Weitz, playing in his last regular season game, led the game in points scored with ten off of his three field goals and extra point. All of his field goals were over 40 yards and were all career highs for him. Further, his points were the difference in the game, as the Tigers’ margin of victory was nine points.

Punter Aidan Swanson also had an incredible game. Field position was key to this defense-dominated game, and he was able to pin the Gamecocks inside of the 20-yard line on 83.3 percent of his punts. He also finished the regular season with a punt average of 43.655 yards, which ranks No. 31 in the country.

“Sometimes our best offensive play is the punt, and speaking of punt team, Aidan Swanson, he’s a dawg,” Brown said. “He’s a dawg. He’s a key player in all of our success right now, and he needs to be talked about more. Honestly, he’s a dawg, and I appreciate him a lot.”

The season overall has not measured up to the standard Clemson fans are used to, with an 8-4 record and missing out on the ACC Championship since all four losses came against conference opponents; this season also marked the worst conference record for the Tigers since 2010. Clemson was able to turn things around in the season's final stretch and withstand the hostile Gamecock crowd, giving them momentum going into next season.

“At Clemson, it’s a standard. So, we wouldn’t practice no different than we would in a National Championship game and the first game of the year. But, we’re going to be us at the end of the day, and we came out with the dub,” Brown said. “This type of rivalry game, it’s always that type of hostility and just, you thrive on it or you just let it take you down, and we just seen through it and prospered.”