When it comes to Braden Galloway being unable to play for Clemson this year, head coach Dabo Swinney is more disappointed for his sophomore tight end than he is Clemson.
Galloway, as most know, is ineligible to play this coming season after the NCAA upheld their year-long suspension following the Clemson tight end testing positive for a performance enhancing drug. Galloway, along with former Clemson defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence and former offensive lineman Zach Giella, was forced to sit out the Cotton Bowl last December and the national championship game in January after a trace of the drug called Ostarine was found in his system.
After the national championship, Lawrence announced his intentions to tun pro and was drafted by the New York Giants with the 17th overall pick in April’s NFL Draft. However, Giella and Galloway fought to keep their eligibility and appealed their suspensions. The consequence of the NCAA’s ruling caused Galloway to lose a year of eligibility he will not get back, while Giella, who was a redshirt senior, saw his career come to an end. He is no longer listed on Clemson’s official roster.
“To me, the bigger thing is just the depth at the position and losing a quality young talent like (Galloway) for this year,” Swinney said. “You have to look at it like an injury. He is out for the year and he will have a couple of years after that and hopefully when his story is all written, he’ll be that great player we all think he can be.”
In the meantime, the Tigers have to move forward with the 2019 season and that means they’ll do their best with what they do have.
They have redshirt junior J.C. Chalk returning as the only tight end with experience. He will be backed up by true freshmen Jaelyn Lay and Davis Allen, as well as former linebacker Luke Price, who moved over in the spring. Price is the brother of former Clemson offensive tackle Phillip Price, who started on Clemson’s 2011 ACC Championship squad.
“It is a lot of opportunity for J.C. He is the next guy. This is a big moment for him to step up and be the contributor that we need him to be at that position,” Swinney said. “But we have a lot of options. We have Jaelyn Lay, who is here. We are excited to see if has taken a step. Davis just got here this summer and we will see where he is. Luke Price is a guy we moved over, so we got guys.
“We will figure it all out. But we also have a bunch of wideouts, and we can just roll another one of those guys out there on third down. I don’t think you really trick a lot of people on third down when everybody knows you are throwing the ball.”
Clemson used some 10-personnel sets (1 running back, 0 tight ends) towards the latter part of the 2018 season and had some success with it.
“Braden was a freshman last year and we had high hopes for him this year, but it is hard to say that is going to impact us a lot. It’s not like saying Tee (Higgins) was here last year and all of sudden Tee is not here,” Swinney said. “We can’t really say we lost anything because he had not done it yet. We had high hopes for what he could have done this year…
“…We will have plenty of options when it comes to throwing the football.”