Clemson DT Albert Huggins upping focus on football for 2016

Clemson defensive tackle Albert Huggins is known for his fun, outgoing personality.At times, as a freshman, he let his lack of seriousness hinder him on the football field.

After last season, the Orangeburg native had a sitdown meeting with Clemson coach Dabo Swinney and defensive tackles coach Dan Brooks. The message was it was time to get serious about football. Huggins took the words to heart.

“I made up my mind that this is the year,” Huggins said. “Through the spring, I was like, ‘Hey, let me take this serious.’ Through the spring I took it serious, but I know I wasn’t working up to my full potential (last season). This year I’m really working.”

Brooks liked what he saw from the sophomore in the winter and into the spring.

Huggins will battle in fall camp to get in the mix for playing time with a talented group of defensive tackles that includes Carlos Watkins, Christian Wilkins and five-star recruit Dexter Lawrence.

“Albert made great progress in the spring,” Brooks said. “I think Albert has bought into the whole thing. He comes from a good program with Tommy Brown at Orangeburg. But I think he has made great progress in studying the game more and understanding what to do and doing it well.”

Brooks added it took Huggins a little bit of time to realize that he wasn’t facing high school offensive linemen anymore.

“When you recruit dominant defensive linemen, a lot of times they are just used to just standing up, throwing people out of the way, running up and making the tackle. Albert got here and found out that’s (former All-ACC offensive lineman) Eric Mac Lain over there blocking. You’re not doing that,” Brooks said.

“It’s different for them, and they have to grow into that. I think he really grew a long ways in offseason, the winter and then spring practice.”

Huggins spent a lot of time in the weight room this offseason, increasing his bench press to 480 pounds. He expects that to pay off during games.

“You need your hands. You need your arms,” he said. “You’ve got to bench press guys off of you and get off a block. I worked on squatting and everything else. I put in hard work.”

Just because Huggins is taking his focus on football up a notch doesn’t mean he’s losing his fun personality.

He’s finding a balance between having fun and accomplishing what needs to get done. There’s a sign at the Clemson practice field that reads “football focus,” and that’s what Huggins plans to do at practice.

“For the next three weeks, we’re just going to have football and no school, so this is the time to grind and put your best forward and show the coaches what I have,” he said. “For the next three weeks, it’s time to focus. Then when the season comes, that’s when you’ll have fun and enjoy everything. I’m just ready to get back to the national championship to be honest.”

This story was originally published August 3, 2016 at 8:02 PM.