Like everyone has done at some point since the COVID-19 pandemic hit our world, Travis Etienne thought about what the future holds and how life might be different from the one he knew before March 12.

In January, Etienne passed on the NFL, deciding to stay at Clemson one more year so he could become a better man, student and football player. All of that was working fine, then the pandemic hit and it made the running back think and reevaluate what was best for him.

“For me, it was just going back home and seeing my nieces and my little brother, just them play sports and seeing how pure the game was,” Etienne said.

Watching his brother and nieces play, reminded Clemson’s all-time leading rusher why he was at Clemson in the first place. He loved to play football.

“I remembered the reasons we get into sports and why I started playing football and why I fell in love with the game,” he said, “and getting back to that and just seeing my brother out here grinding. It just forced me to get better and grind with him and just be the best player I can be.”

Etienne is one hundred percent opted in on the 2020 season and he is anxious to see how far he and his Clemson teammates can go.

“I am here with my brothers every day. We are taking it one day at a time. That is all we can focus on right now. So, every day we wake up, we are all in,” he said. “We don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. We are done trying to figure out what is going to happen tomorrow, so every time we step on this field, we are all in.”

As for worrying if the 2020 season will be moved to the spring, like the Big Ten and the Pac 12 did earlier this week, Etienne says he can’t focus on any of that happening. Obviously, if it were to happen, he would have to make a choice of playing football in the spring considering he is scheduled to graduate in December and the NFL Draft is in April.

“We are not really focused on that right now. I’m just here fully emerged in this team and us building, us growing and us becoming a brotherhood and being in tune with each other each and every day,” he said. “So, we are not even focused on the spring because we are here enjoying the time and each other every day. So, we are not even worried about the spring.”

—photo courtesy Clemson Athletic Communications

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