Clemson LB Dorian O’Daniel primed for breakout junior season

From Kevin Dodd to Shaq Lawson to B.J. Goodson, Clemson has had a run of players who’ve had to patiently wait for playing time before bursting onto the scene.

Junior linebacker Dorian O’Daniel is hoping to join that in 2016.

The Maryland native, who had offers from just about every top program in the country coming out of high school, has contributed mostly on special teams thus far in his Clemson career, but he’ll finally get an opportunity to start at SAM linebacker this fall.

“I’ve learned from the guys that came before me,” O’Daniel said. “All of those guys had to wait their turn… Situations like that remind me, ‘Ok, maybe my situation isn’t as bad as I thought it was.’ ”

For a while, O’Daniel wondered if he’d ever get a chance to play significant snaps for the Tigers. He admitted there were times when he considered giving up football.

O’Daniel redshirted his first year at Clemson and played primarily special teams each of the next two seasons.

“It was very humbling, because coming out of high school I was obviously a highly recruited guy,” he said. “I feel like all football players have some self doubt in whether or not they want to continue doing it because they’re not getting the results that they want.”

Despite being frustrated with his lack of playing time, O’Daniel didn’t let that affect his production on special teams. He recorded a team-high 13 special teams tackles in 2014, and a team-high 19 special teams tackles last year.

While O’Daniel took his role on special teams seriously, he felt at times that others didn’t. Despite making the national title game last season, the Tigers finished last in the ACC and were near the bottom in the country in kickoff coverage.

“It was really frustrating for us to be ranked last in the ACC in special teams, and for me to do so well on special teams, because I took pride in it because I didn’t play as many snaps on defense, obviously,” he said. “When I went out there, I took pride in it. When I looked across and there was a guy not giving it his all like I am, it was discouraging.”

He’ll once again play special teams in 2016, in addition to being counted on to fill one of seven holes on Clemson’s defense. Even though the Tigers have to replace a majority of their defensive starters for a second straight year, O’Daniel expects the unit to be just fine.

“We get the same questions every year. ‘How is the defense going to be? How are you guys going to stack up compared to last year?’ ” O’Daniel said. “It’s funny because each year the defense is just as good, if not better. I’ve seen a lot of young, anxious, talented players that are ready to contribute.”