Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney held a press conference Wednesday afternoon as the Tigers kick off spring practice.

Swinney commented on the situation with redshirt senior defensive tackle DeMonte Capehart, who is back with the team after weapon and traffic charges were dropped. He will be participating in spring drills.

After a Feb. 6 traffic arrest on campus, Capehart was charged with “unlawfully having a gun on school property” and “failure to exercise due care while operating a motor vehicle.” According to Clemson, both charges were dismissed after he participated in a PTI (pretrial intervention) program.

“Cape made a mistake,” Swinney said. “He’s a great kid, and he’ll learn from that and we’ll handle it within the team.”

Swinney added that Capehart’s situation, along with the situation involving redshirt freshman receiver Noble Johnson, is “an opportunity to teach, it’s an opportunity for guys to learn and again, nobody’s immune to young people doing dumb things from time to time.”

“It’s how you respond to those things, it’s how you teach and how you grow from it, and we’ll use it as such,” Swinney said.

Capehart came on down the stretch last season as one of Clemson’s most physical and disruptive interior linemen. The 6-foot-5, 320-pounder was credited by the coaching staff with nine quarterback pressures, the second-most among the Tigers’ interior linemen, and was credited with 16 tackles (5.0 for loss), a sack, a pass breakup and a forced fumble.

Capehart played in 12 of Clemson’s 13 games in 2023.

A former top-50 national recruit, the Hartsville, S.C., native has recorded 32 tackles (9.0 for loss), 2.0 sacks, a pass breakup and a forced fumble during his 34 career games.

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