Clemson football dismisses promising freshman playmaker from team
A Clemson true freshman has been dismissed from the program.
Freshman athlete Marquise Henderson is no longer with the team heading into the 2025 season, a team spokesman told The State on Thursday.
The in-state recruit leaves coach Dabo Swinney’s program without appearing in a single game and roughly five months after enrolling at Clemson.
“Clemson has made the decision to dismiss Marquise Henderson from its program,” the team spokesman said. “We wish him the best as he moves forward.”
Clemson declined to elaborate on the specifics of why Henderson was dismissed.
Henderson, 18, is expected to enter the NCAA transfer portal, though it’s unclear whether or not he’d be eligible to play for another school in 2025 since he’s entering outside of the sport’s two established portal windows (December and April).
Henderson is the first Clemson player to be dismissed from the program since linebacker TJ Dudley in summer 2023. Dudley is now playing at Ole Miss.
Marquise Henderson’s brief Clemson career
Henderson enrolled early at Clemson in January after a prolific career at Belton-Honea Path, an in-state school about 45 minutes from campus in Anderson County.
A dazzling playmaker who played running back, wide receiver and returner, Henderson set the school’s all-time rushing record, averaged 11 yards per carry and had just under 8,000 career all-purpose yards in four seasons.
Henderson (5-foot-10, 170 pounds) ranked as the No. 4 player in the state of South Carolina and the No. 182 recruit nationally per the 247Sports Composite. He signed with Clemson as an “athlete” but had started out practicing with the offense.
Swinney said on March 12 that Henderson had been battling a hamstring injury and hadn’t “been able to go” since the team’s opening spring practice on Feb. 28.
“Hate that for him, but he’s got a long way to go,” Swinney said.
Henderson didn’t participate in the team’s April 5 spring game either.
“Marquise has not really been able to do much this spring, so we really haven’t even gotten the first base with him,” Swinney said after the spring game, while discussing Clemson’s wide receiver group. “But we know he’s a great athlete.”
Neither Clemson nor Swinney had publicly disclosed if Henderson was facing any suspensions or team discipline before the program dismissed him on Thursday.
This story was originally published June 19, 2025 at 11:22 AM.
