Pork Chop impresses Dabo Swinney during camp session

White throws for the Clemson coaches (Photo courtesy of Grayson White).

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Tue Jun 13 07:00:17 GMT-04:00 2023

When fans think about Dabo Swinney’s high school camps, they think about 5-stars and 4-stars and the occasional 3-star working out in front of the Clemson coaches. What they don’t think about, or often see, are the ones with the big hearts out, hoping for a chance to play football at the next level.

Grayson White, a 2024 do-it-all athlete out of Camden (SC), is one of those people. White was at the first session of Swinney’s camp and worked out with the quarterbacks. It wasn’t White’s first visit to Clemson at the invite of the coaches.

“I've been on three game visits - Furman, Florida State and another game that I can't remember. This was my second camp,” White told TigerNet. “The last camp I went to, I actually played d-line. This was the first time I've camped as a quarterback.”

White has played it all at Camden.

“Sophomore year, I was starting on the defensive line, and I made the move to linebacker,” he said. “Our quarterback got hurt that year, and I had played quarterback for our ninth grade team the previous year in middle school, so they just moved me out to quarterback and I've been there ever since.”

White stands 6-0 and weighs in at a svelte 240 pounds, and with his hat turned around backward, didn’t look like the rest of the quarterbacks throwing in front of Swinney, Cade Klubnik, and offensive coordinator Garrett Riley. But then he began to throw, and all eyes turned his way.

“It was honestly surreal,” White said. “Being my size, people think, 'Oh, he's probably not a D1 quarterback prospect.' It was great getting to talk to Coach Swinney and seeing that I'm impressing a lot of these coaches.”

It didn’t take Swinney long to give White a nickname.

“I don't have an official nickname but he called me, 'pork chop.' Then he said, 'You're not a pork chop, you're a t-bone steak.' It was pretty funny,” White said. “I talked to Dabo the most. He talked to me for about five minutes in between throwing. He said you don't look the part, but you can sling the ball and telling me that it's impressive. He was telling me that all the coaches were watching. He was telling me that Hunter Renfrow didn't look the part, and that he could see me as a walk-on type of guy.”

If Clemson doesn’t offer as a walk-on, White has other options.

“I've been talking to Georgia State and Wofford. Georgia State said they wanted me try fullback, which I've played in the past,” White said. “Coaches don't really know what position they want me in. I don't have as much defensive film as I would like. I go to a lot of camps as a linebacker, and Mercer said they wish I had a lot more linebacker film because it's hard to recruit me as a linebacker when I'm playing quarterback all the time. I do too. A lot of people see my size and say it's not prototypical.”