Initially, he didn’t think it was his knee.

Adam Randall’s ACL injury happened during the latter part of the spring. Clemson’s freshman receiver caught a pass over the middle, and linebacker Jeremiah Trotter closed in for the tackle. Randall remembers hearing a pop from the force of the hit, though it came from the back of his right leg.

Or so he thought.

“It felt like it was in the back of my knee,” Randall told The Clemson Insider recently. “I thought it was my hamstring at first, but it wasn’t that.”

Randall acknowledged the official diagnosis was “devastating” at first considering it’s not uncommon for ACL tears to be season-enders for athletes. Randall, who enrolled early after a standout prep career at Myrtle Beach High School, had been on Clemson’s campus less than three months before sustaining an injury that was seemingly going to jeopardize his debut season with the Tigers.

Nearly four months removed from surgery, though, the outlook for Randall is a more positive one.

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said Randall is “way above every benchmark” in his recovery and expects the four-star signee to be able to return to the field at some point this fall. Randall confirmed as much, though he said his timetable isn’t getting any more specific than that.

“We don’t have a projected target date because you don’t want to put that pressure on the trainer or even the athlete,” Randall said. “Just being able to continue to get better and build confidence, that’s what you have to do when you’re recovering from an ACL. You have to build as much confidence as you had before and probably even more now because you know you’re not invincible anymore.

“As soon as I have enough confidence and I feel well enough to get back on that field, I will as soon as I can.”

Randall, who caught 16 touchdown passes during his senior season at Myrtle Beach, said he no longer feels any pain in his knee and is hoping to get back to running and cutting on it within the next couple of weeks. The 6-foot-2, 215-pounder credited Clemson football’s new head athletic trainer, Pat Richards, and his staff for helping with his quick recovery during the rehabilitation process

“He brings great energy to the training room every single day, so I’ve been appreciative of him being here with the best technology and the best training staff being able to help me out,” Randall said. “Couldn’t ask for a better recovery plan, and I couldn’t ask for a better place to be to recover from this injury.”

Randall said it’s helped him get through some grueling rehab sessions, which have included him spending two to three hours per day in the training room this summer.

“Sometimes you get tired of looking at the training room walls and the trainers, but I feel like that’s the best plan for me and that’s what’s going to get me back the fastest,” Randall said.

Randall gave himself some credit in one aspect, too. Upon learning of his injury, he said he was determined not to let it keep him away from the field for a full year and used former Clemson players who went through a similar experience during their time in school as motivation.

“You see guys like Amari Rodgers and Deshaun Watson, they tear their ACLs and they come back fairly quickly,” Randall said. “Just having that same mindset with recovery and just having the same mindset as you would on the football field in the training room and the recovery room, that’s what I kind of took. Doing it every single day, I felt like that was going to help me out.

“I don’t know when I’m going to be back. It’s still a weird area, but just hopefully continuing to grow and getting stronger and have more confidence as I continue to recover is what I’m looking for.”