Why 3 Clemson football walk-ons could lose their scholarships ahead of 2023 season
Holden Caspersen is Clemson football’s starting long snapper. Domonique Thomas is the No. 3 running back. Hunter Helms might end up being the backup quarterback.
But, as things currently stand, those three former walk-ons could face a dose of reality brought on by roster management in 2023. If the Tigers need to take back scholarships to comply with NCAA rules heading into next season, coach Dabo Swinney said Caspersen, Thomas and Helms will be first in line to lose theirs.
Clemson wrapped spring practice with 88 players on scholarship, three above the NCAA’s limit for Division I FBS football teams, and must be at 85 before its Sept. 4 Labor Day season opener at Duke.
Speaking with reporters at a Tuesday Prowl & Growl Tour event in Greenwood, Swinney said Clemson’s scholarship crunch came after seven seniors opted to return for their extra “COVID year” of eligibility, something he and his staff didn’t anticipate.
“But in a situation like this, that’s where you have to start: you start with guys who were walk-ons,” Swinney said, per TigerNet. “But who knows what’ll happen? Somebody may leave. I don’t know. We’ve got a plan. We’ll be at 85 by the time we get to September.”
Swinney first outlined Clemson’s scholarship situation at his 2023 national signing day news conference, a few weeks after a flurry of players, including two likely Day 2 or Day 3 NFL Draft picks in defensive tackles Tyler Davis and Ruke Orhorhoro, opted to return.
Defensive ends Xavier Thomas and Justin Mascoll, defensive backs Sheridan Jones and Jalyn Phillips and center Will Putnam also chose to use their fifth year of eligibility, extended by the NCAA to all athletes who competed during the COVID-19-affected 2020-21 season.
“We didn’t anticipate seven seniors coming back,” Swinney said Tuesday. “In fact, I met with Tyler Davis today and I told him if you’d have told me at this time last year I’d be meeting with you again, I woulda said, ‘Sign me up for that.’ So obviously Sheridan, JP, Ruke, Putnam, XT, Mascoll, Tyler, those guys coming back, that put us in a hole.”
A natural solution for Clemson: attrition through the transfer portal.
The NCAA’s spring transfer window for football opened Saturday, the same day Clemson held its annual Orange and White spring game, and remains open for 15 days through April 30. That’s the only time before December players can enter the portal, though they’re free to leave their team with “intent to declare” at any time.
But Swinney – who started doing spring exit interviews with the program’s roughly 120 players last week and has about 40 to go – said Tuesday he wasn’t aware of any players intending to transfer out of Clemson this spring. (Clemson also had zero spring transfers in 2022.)
Which puts Caspersen, Thomas and Helms in a shaky situation, he said.
“Unfortunately, we always have a couple of walk-ons that deserve scholarships,” Swinney said. “Sometimes you have one (to give). Sometimes you have none. Sometimes you have a couple.”
Helms has been on scholarship since 2021, and Thomas and Caspersen have been on scholarship since 2022. All three players signed with Clemson out of high school (or, in Thomas’ case, transferred into the program) as preferred walk-ons without guaranteed scholarships.
Swinney – who initially walked onto Alabama as a wide receiver in the 1990s before earning a scholarship – said he’s up front with preferred walk-on players about scholarships.
“They all know,” Swinney said. “We bring them on and tell them up front, ‘We can’t guarantee you this next year, but hopefully we’ll be able to keep you on.’ It’s always a year-to-year thing, which is different than for a guy who signs with you out of high school. You’ve kinda gotta have a pecking order there, you know?”
All three former walk-ons could play significant roles for Clemson in 2023. Caspersen was Clemson’s starting long snapper for punts in all 14 games last year. Thomas, an NAIA transfer nicknamed “Quadzilla”, had 63 yards and a touchdown in the spring game and has established himself as the team’s clear No. 3 running back behind Will Shipley and Phil Mafah.
And Helms, who played locally at West Columbia’s Gray Collegiate Academy, appears to have the upper hand on Arizona State transfer Paul Tyson and true freshman Christopher Vizzina in Clemson’s backup quarterback battle behind entrenched starter Cade Klubnik.
Helms was the Tigers’ most capable reserve quarterback by far in the spring game, going 8-18 for 118 yards, zero touchdowns and zero interceptions for the Orange team (primarily the second-team offense). He also drew rave reviews from Swinney earlier in spring practice.
“The last guy we would take off (scholarship) would be a guy like Hunter Helms,” Swinney said Tuesday. “He’s a very proven guy who’s a leader, a guy who could play for us if we needed him and knows what to do. But you kinda just see how it works out. It is what it is. That’s the life of a walk-on. Been there, done that.”
This story was originally published April 19, 2023 at 1:00 PM.
