Once again, two of the most talented teams in college football will be going head-to-head when Ohio State and Clemson meet in the College Football Playoff semifinals on Friday.
Unless you’ve been watching Clemson all year long, though, you might not be familiar with who the Tigers’ stars are outside of Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne.
Everyone with even a passing interest in college football knows about Lawrence, the projected No. 1 overall pick in next year’s NFL draft. A finalist for the Heisman Trophy and the ACC Player of the Year, Lawrence already led Clemson to a national championship as a true freshman and led the Tigers to a win over Ohio State last year, when he threw for 259 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 107 yards and another touchdown against the Buckeyes.
If you watched last year’s Fiesta Bowl, then you should also be plenty familiar with Etienne, who had 134 yards from scrimmage and scored three touchdowns (two receiving, one rushing) against Ohio State in 2019. A finalist for the Doak Walker Award as one of college football’s best running backs, Etienne holds the Football Bowl Subdivision record for most games scoring a touchdown (45) and is one of only 12 players in FBS history with 4,000 career rushing yards and 1,000 career receiving yards.
Those two players certainly warrant the spotlight, but there’s many other less heralded players who have also played key roles in leading Clemson to a 10-1 record and the No. 2 seed in the CFP, and who will be some of the best players at their positions that Ohio State has faced all season.
We take a look below at 10 other Clemson players you should know ahead of Friday’s Sugar Bowl.
WR Amari Rodgers
Rodgers had just one catch in Clemson’s 2019 win over Ohio State, but it was a big one, as his 38-yard reception set up Travis Etienne’s game-winning 34-yard catch-and-run one play later.
This year, with Tee Higgins now in the NFL and Justyn Ross out for the season after spinal surgery, Rodgers has become Clemson’s No. 1 receiver, leading the Tigers with 69 receptions, 966 receiving yards and seven receiving touchdowns. He tied with Lawrence for the most votes among all players on this year’s All-ACC team.
Still lining up in the slot for the Tigers, Rodgers has the speed to stretch the field and the agility to make defenders miss in space and turn short receptions into bigger gains. While he’s done most of his damage this season on shorter routes, he is a big-play receiving threat against an Ohio State pass defense that has had problems with allowing big plays.
WR Cornell Powell
Much like Ohio State has had its share of fifth-year senior breakout players in recent years (Terry McLaurin and DaVon Hamilton to name two), that’s what Powell has been for Clemson this season.
Powell was a backup for most of his first four seasons at Clemson, catching just 40 total passes for 329 yards and three touchdowns from 2016-19. He’s finally broken through as a fifth-year senior this year, though, catching 45 passes for 743 yards and five touchdowns as the Tigers’ No. 2 receiver.
A third-team All-ACC selection, Powell has been the Tigers’ top big-play threat, with five receptions of 50 or more yards this year. He’s not quite the superstar receiver that Clemson has had on many of its recent teams, but he has the field-stretching speed to make the Buckeyes pay if they lose him in coverage.
LT Jackson Carman
Those will follow Ohio State recruiting closely are already plenty familiar with Carman, as the five-star offensive tackle from Fairfield, Ohio, was a major Ohio State target before he ultimately decided to sign with Clemson.
Ohio State bounced back from that recruiting loss just fine, signing Nicholas Petit-Frere instead, but for the second year in a row, the Buckeyes will now have to face Carman, who earned second-team All-ACC honors this year as Clemson’s left tackle.
Now Clemson’s most experienced starting offensive lineman, he’s also the Tigers’ best offensive lineman. A great athlete for his size at 6-foot-5 and 335 pounds, Carman is both a powerful run blocker and a strong pass blocker on Lawrence’s blind side. He’ll be one of the best offensive tackles Ohio State’s defensive ends have faced all season.
Ohio native Jackson Carman is the star of Clemson's offensive line. (Photo: Ken Ruinard via Imagn Content Services, LLC)
LG Matt Bockhorst
As it turns out, both starters on the left side of Clemson’s offensive line are from Ohio – they’re the only Buckeye State natives on the Tigers’ roster – as Bockhorst is from Cincinnati and a product of St. Xavier High School, where he and Justin Hilliard were teammates.
Unlike Carman, Bockhorst did not receive an offer from Ohio State out of high school. But the four-star recruit – ranked as the No. 11 prospect from the state of Ohio in the class of 2017 – has developed into a quality starter for the Tigers, earning second-team All-ACC honors alongside Carman this season as a first-year starting left guard.
He’ll face a tough matchup this week as he blocks Haskell Garrett, Tommy Togiai and the rest of Ohio State’s defensive line. Given that he was a backup last year when the two teams met, he’ll surely be looking to play at his best in his first start against his home-state school.
DE Myles Murphy
Ranked as the No. 1 defensive end in the recruiting class of 2020, Murphy has already started living up to the hype as a true freshman, leading Clemson with 10 tackles for loss, four sacks and three forced fumbles this season.
Long and explosive off the edge at 6-foot-5 and 275 pounds, Murphy is as talented as any defensive end has faced all season and will give Ohio State’s offensive tackles one of their toughest tests of the year (in a rotation that also includes two other five-star recruits at defensive end, K.J. Henry and Xavier Thomas, though Thomas hasn’t played as much this season after an offseason battle with COVID-19).
Named as the ACC’s co-newcomer of the year by the Associated Press, Murphy looks poised to be a star on Clemson’s defensive line for three years before likely being an early NFL draft pick, and he’s already a player Ohio State needs to be prepared for this year.
DT Bryan Bresee
Clemson’s defensive line doesn’t only feature the No. 1 defensive end in the class of 2020, it also features the No. 1 defensive tackle – and for that matter, the No. 1 overall prospect in the entire 2020 class. Bresee, who was also pursued heavily as a recruit by Ohio State, has also lived up to the hype in his freshman season with the Tigers.
Already an All-ACC first-team selection and the ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year, Bresee has already emerged as a disruptive force on Clemson’s interior defensive line, recording four tackles for loss, three sacks, two pass breakups, one forced fumble, a safety and a blocked field goal this season.
At 6-foot-5 and 300 pounds with excellent power and burst off the line of scrimmage, Bresee pairs with Tyler Davis to lead a rotation of defensive tackles that will put Ohio State’s interior offensive line to the test.
LB Baylon Spector
Spector recorded two sacks against Ohio State in last year’s College Football Playoff semifinal, and he’s built off that performance to become Clemson’s most productive linebacker this season.
Spector leads Clemson with 64 total tackles and has recorded 9.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, one pass breakup and one forced fumble. An instinctive, aggressive downhill attacker, Spector is one of the top threats to blitz into the backfield and make plays that Ohio State needs to be aware of at all times.
An All-ACC honorable mention, Spector was named as the Walter Camp National Defensive Player of the Week after he recorded 14 tackles in Clemson’s 41-23 win over Virginia on Oct. 3.
LB James Skalski
Much like Tuf Borland at Ohio State, Skalski is the leader of Clemson’s defense from his middle linebacker spot.
A fifth-year senior like Borland, Skalski is one of just two Tigers (along with Powell) who’s already played against Ohio State twice, first as a special teamer in 2016 and last year as Clemson’s starting middle linebacker. He recorded nine tackles against Ohio State in 2019 and earned second-team All-ACC honors this year despite missing three games with a groin injury.
Also like Borland, Skalski does most of his damage between the hashmarks but is a strong tackler and another blitzing threat for the Tigers. Along with Spector, he’s one-half of the linebacker tandem that Dabo Swinney refers to as the “Bruise Brothers.”
James Skalski is the veteran leader of Clemson's defense. (Photo: Ken Ruinard – USA TODAY Sports)
CB Derion Kendrick
Another one of the 10 five-star composite recruits on Clemson’s roster, Kendrick started his Clemson career as a wide receiver before moving to cornerback last season, and he’s now emerged as one of the nation’s best at the position in his second year as a defensive starter.
A first-team All-ACC selection this year, Kendrick will likely be the primary cornerback tasked with covering Chris Olave on the outside of Clemson’s defense.
Opponents typically don’t throw his way often, but when they do, the ball skills that made him a top-rated receiver prospect out of high school show up in how he plays the ball in coverage. He has one interception and five pass breakups in just eight games this year, and had a 66-yard fumble return for a touchdown against Virginia Tech. Against Ohio State last year, Kendrick had nine tackles with a tackle for loss and two pass breakups.
S Nolan Turner
Turner played the role of heartbreaker against Ohio State last year, capitalizing on Olave’s route-running mistake and intercepting Justin Fields in the end zone to seal Clemson’s 29-23 victory. He’s made even more big plays on the back end of Clemson’s secondary this year, leading the Tigers with three interceptions and 37 solo tackles.
Although he didn’t even have a composite recruiting ranking out of high school – he earned an offer from Clemson mostly because his late father was Swinney’s teammate at Alabama – he’s developed into a key leader and do-everything player for Clemson at safety. He earned second-team All-ACC honors for a season in which he’s also recorded 6.5 tackles for loss.
However, Turner will be out for the first half of the Sugar Bowl after being ejected for targeting in the second half of the ACC Championship Game, and his first-half absence could be problematic for Clemson’s secondary. He’s started every game at free safety for the Tigers this season, but they’ll have to rely on sophomores Joseph Charleston and Lannden Zanders to hold down the back end of their defense until halftime, and Ohio State could look for opportunities to exploit that and make plays over the middle of the field.
