Why Clemson-UConn football game will be extra special for Phommachanh family
Taisun Phommachanh is looking for tickets for Clemson’s game Saturday against UConn at Memorial Stadium.
Including his own allotted amount, he needs 30 total — to be exact.
Taisun’s brothers, sister, cousins and other family members will be attending the game. He won’t need a ticket for one of his brothers, however. Though out for the season with an ACL tear, quarterback Tyler Phommachanh (pronounced poo-mah-chun) plays for the Huskies and will travel to be on the opposite sideline as his big brother, Taisun.
The joyful reunion will be a stark contrast from the last time Taisun and Tyler saw one another. Their family home in Stratford, Connecticut was destroyed in a fire on Dec. 21. A GoFundMe page raised more than $90,000 for the family, which has since recovered.
Just when the Phommachanhs had picked up the pieces and overcome that adversity, Taisun tore an Achilles during Clemson’s spring football game in April. The Phommachanhs’ maternal grandfather lives in Haiti and was affected by the country’s earthquakes in August, though Taisun said his grandfather is OK.
While Taisun recovered and has been part of several thrilling wins this season at Clemson, Tyler has experienced his own roller coaster of a year at UConn. The excitement of earning the team’s starting quarterback job as a freshman for three games was spoiled when he went down with an injury against Vanderbilt on Oct. 2.
On Tuesday, Tyler revealed he sustained an ACL injury and had surgery a couple of weeks ago, ending his collegiate debut season.
“I’ve just been working on getting as much swelling down as possible trying to get some mobilization and be able to put some pressure on it,” he said. “I have been in a brace, but I’ve just been trying to make it stronger and get to that point where I can be able to move again.”
Taisun has done his best to keep his younger brother encouraged, using his own ordeal as a point of reference.
“I’m just trying to be there mentally for him, just making sure that he understands that there’s a physical part of getting injured,” Taisun explained, “but then again, there’s a mental side of it where you’ve just got to stay up and stay focused, see through that smoke, see through that adversity. I just try to keep his head up, keep him levelheaded.”
Trying to keep their heads up is something the Phommachanhs have had to do a lot over the past 12 months. Still, the family of seven has conquered every battle during every step of the way — together.
“When you go through adversity, it can either do two things: It could make you or break you,” Taisun said. “I think it made me and my family, it brought us closer. We’re already a close family, but going through stuff like that with those people, man, it just brings us closer.”
Taisun has played in five games this season for Clemson, which included a series against Louisville this past weekend that ended in a 38-yard field goal from B.T. Potter. On the year, the redshirt sophomore has totaled 98 yards on 10 of 18 passing with one interception.
Come Saturday, the bulk of the Phommachanh clan will be in Death Valley, a bittersweet moment as Tyler, who Taisun described as a “baller,” sits on the sidelines.
Tyler did, however, trade some smack talk in preparation for the reunion and gave his own scouting report of Taisun.
“He’s like a bigger version of me,” Tyler said. “He can run, he can throw the ball. He can extend plays, make plays. He’s got all of it, so we’ll definitely see some good plays out of him for sure.”
While both Phommachanh bothers won’t be suited up, just getting to see one another almost a year after devastation struck their family is good enough.
“It’s going to be a good time. It’s going to feel like high school,” the elder Phommachanh said. “I played with him in high school. It’s going to bring me back to those days with everybody in the stands just playing ball, so it’s going to be fun.”
Clemson and UConn are set to kick off at noon Saturday with the game being broadcast on the ACC Network.
More family connections
Tyler and Taisun Phommachanh won’t be the only family members on the field Saturday.
Clemson junior wide receiver Ajou Ajou’s cousin, Lwal Uguak, is a defensive lineman for UConn, so the two will likely be on the field at the same time, depending on rotations.
“That’s one game I’ve really been looking at for the whole year,” Uguak said.
While the two didn’t grow up together, they met in high school and played together at Harry Ainlay High in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Ajou transferred to Clearwater Academy International in Clearwater, Florida for his senior year in 2019.
Uguak, a junior, stayed in Canada and won a Provincial High School Tier 1 Championship. He joked that he plans to be in Ajou’s ear a little bit during the game and is looking forward to the opportunity to come to Memorial Stadium.
“I’m just excited to play him and in that atmosphere,” Uguak said. “It’s a big game for all of us to go up there and show that we can hang with these dudes. I’m just excited to go up there and play.”
Clemson player in transfer portal
On Tuesday, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney announced sophomore offensive lineman Paul Tchio would be entering the transfer portal.
Tchio, a former four-star recruit from Alpharetta, Georgia made his first career start against N.C. State and played 42 snaps for a season total of 101 snaps.
Tchio’s departure makes four for the Tigers (running backs Lyn-J Dixon and Michel Dukes; safety Joseph Charleston) and also depletes an offensive line already struggling to keep bodies. The Tigers lost Matt Bockhorst for the year to an ACL tear, while Will Putnam will be day-to-day and a gametime decision, per Swinney.
Trent Howard, Mitchell Mayes and Bryn Tucker have been taking reps on the line all season, though Tucker hasn’t been listed on the weekly depth charts up to this point. Because there’s only three games left in the regular season, Swinney noted that freshmen Tristan Leigh and Ryan Linthicum aren’t in danger of losing a potential redshirt season, an opportunity that expires after a player has appeared in four games in a season. As a result, the two were brought up from the scout team on Monday.
“They’ve been in power hour, grinding down there in the weight room all fall on the scout team, so we’ll move those guys up and keep rolling with what we’ve got,” Swinney said. “We’ve developed a lot of versatility on that offensive line. We’ve got a lot of guys that can play multiple positions and really excited about the group.”
This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
