Southlake (Texas) Carroll four-star safety R.J. Mickens was among six Clemson signees who participated in the All-American Bowl on Saturday at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
Mickens (6-0, 190) played for the West team, while fellow future Tigers Bryan Bresee, DJ Uiagalelei, Myles Murphy, Fred Davis and Paul Tchio all suited up for the East squad.
“It was great, just going against my future teammates and people I’ll be seeing in the future,” Mickens told The Clemson Insider. “That’s probably some of the best competition because all those guys are going to be top guys in college. So, to have them all on the same field is probably more competition than you might see in college. You just don’t know where these guys will end up, so it’s great competing against some of the best.”
Today marks the official beginning of Mickens’ career at Clemson, as he is enrolling at the school with the other midyear enrollees in the Tigers’ 2020 signing class.
“I’m very excited for it,” he said. “Excited for the stage, excited to see the guys, be up there with all my recruits in the same class, just finally make that official, be together. That’ll be cool, and starting college, it’s cool too.”
Mickens said his parents would be traveling with him to campus to help him get settled in, and it’s a bittersweet moment for both of them as they send their son off to college.
“Yeah, for sure,” he said. “They’re both just pretty sad. It’s weird having me out the house after so long, but they’re excited to see my new journey.”
Mickens, one of the nation’s top-rated defensive backs, is excited to be joining a program under Dabo Swinney that is chock full of talent and set up to continue competing for championships in the years to come.
“It’s great,” he said. “Dabo’s a great guy and has been doing great things. Even before he was doing great things, he was a great guy. It only takes one class to start a domino effect, and I feel like that’s already been kicked into place a long time ago and people are starting to recognize what he’s been doing, and top guys are going there.”
An all-around player who helped Southlake Carroll as a safety and receiver, Mickens recorded 211 tackles, eight interceptions and 40 passes defensed during his career as a four-year starter while adding 61 receptions for 1,092 yards and 14 touchdowns offensively.
Mickens is slated to play safety for the Tigers and explained how he expects to be utilized in Brent Venables’ defense.
“Just being their high safety in a lot of formations and the field safety and maybe playing some nickel and some free, boundary safety probably,” he said. “So just being able to learn all those positions, maybe some corner, just being able to learn all those positions to where I can get on the field fast, special teams of course, and just learning the spot, learning the positions.”
What will Mickens bring to the table as an athlete in the Tigers’ secondary?
“A calm, I wouldn’t say a hoorah player, but definitely can bring energy and big-play ability and does his job and does it well,” he said. “I just try to do my job and make plays on the football.”
Mickens, who committed to Clemson on April 6, 2019, is the son of former Texas A&M All-American and eight-year NFL defensive back Ray Mickens.
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