When Baylon Spector came to Clemson in 2017, he was recruited to play the strongside position. But later in the fall, he switched to the weakside where he has been pretty much since.

“It took me about a year, maybe a year and a half,” Spector said following Monday’s practice. “I’m still learning. I mean, I am learning every day. I still make mistakes and I try to get better every single day.

“So, it is a never-ending process and I continue to try and better myself and learn and watch as much as I can.”

The process has put Spector in position to be Clemson’s new starting weakside linebacker.

Spector redshirted in 2017 and then played mostly on special teams in 2018. The Calhoun, Ga., native’s playing time picked up last year, as he moved into a reserve role at the weakside position. He played in all 15 games last year and recorded 45 tackles, including six tackles for loss and two sacks.

His best game came in the Tigers win over Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl. That night he recorded both his sacks on Buckeyes’ quarterback Justin Fields.

Spector has since carried the momentum of that performance to spring practice and now into fall camp, where he is flying to the football and making plays.

“It was big. A lot of preparation went into it and that definitely helped me out,” he said. “Obviously, I was very excited after the game, but overall, it was a great experience and it definitely brought my game to a different level.

“It brought my confidence up, so I thought it was great.”

As he admitted, the redshirt junior still has some room to improve. One of those areas is with his size. He reported to camp weighing 232 pounds, which he was okay with, but he wanted to be a little bigger. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic had a different idea.

“I was right where I wanted to be (in the spring),” he said. “I wanted to gain good strength, but with COVID and us being sent home and not having the availability of the (right) food and the access to food that we do here, it was definitely hard and made it a lot tougher. I was about 232 and wanted to get up to about 236 or 238 and somewhere in that range and just be lean, but I’m still where I was back then.

“It is huge, but again, I have another year to come back and work on that.”

A great gift for any Tiger fan. Just one of many great items available from Clemson Variety & Frame