Dylan Stewart trained with USC great Jadeveon Clowney. Here’s what he learned
A photo created quite a stir last month for South Carolina Gamecock football fans.
The image showed South Carolina great and NFL No. 1 draft pick Jadeveon Clowney talking and giving advice to Dylan Stewart, USC’s sophomore phenom and fellow five-star defensive end.
The picture, posted by Stewart to an Instagram story, quickly made the rounds on social media. The SportsCenterNext Instagram account posted the photo and shared it with its 1.1 million followers. It was also shared on various X and Facebook pages.
It gave USC fans a glimpse of the not-so-distant past with one of its bright future stars in college football.
So how did that moment happen?
The encounter came about through a friend of Stewart’s, he said. The Gamecocks sophomore flew to Houston in July and spent two days working out with Clowney and soaking in all the advice the three-time Pro Bowl selection handed out.
Clowney is currently out of the NFL after being released by the Carolina Panthers last year following his 11th season in the league.
“It just came about. I was talking to one of my friends and it just happened,” Stewart said of the training session with Clowney. “He is someone I always looked up to in middle and high school, so it was a great experience.
“He taught me how to train in the proper way and how to keep myself healthy. He helped me with hand placement. He said if you have good hand placement, you will be fine.”
Stewart aspires to achieve Clowney’s level of impact during his time with the Gamecocks. Clowney was a two-time All-American, SEC Freshman of the Year and SEC Defensive Player of the Year (2012) during his time at USC.
Clowney set the single-season program record for sacks and tackles for loss with 23.5.
Stewart nearly surpassed one of Clowney’s records last season with his 6.5 sacks, just behind Clowney’s freshman record of eight.
Stewart burst on the scene in his first game against Old Dominion with four tackles and 1.5 sacks. His strip sack of ODU’s Grant Wilson set up the Gamecocks’ game-winning touchdown in the game.
Stewart faced double-teams and sometimes triple-teams during the season last year but was helped out on the other side by Kyle Kennard, who went on to be named the SEC’s Defensive Player of the Year. With Kennard gone to the NFL, Stewart can expect more of the same attention from opposing offenses this season.
USC defensive ends coach Sterling Lucas says there’s room for improvement in Stewart’s games and felt he left “some plays out there” a year ago.
Some of the biggest areas of improvement for Stewart this season, Lucas said, is getting stronger, adding more “violence to his game” and learning to play through contact much like a basketball player does after he gets fouled.
“The expectation is to be better than I was last year,” Stewart said. “I want to improve on things I didn’t do last year like the run game, getting stronger and maintaining my strength throughout the season.”
This story was originally published August 6, 2025 at 8:15 AM.
