CLEMSON – Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney made headlines last month after adding three transfer players to his roster.

One of the biggest additions came at defensive end, with the Tigers signing former Purdue standout Will Heldt. The 6-foot-6, 265-pound prospect appeared in all 24 of the Boilermakers games over his first two seasons at Purdue and as a sophomore he recorded 56 tackles, 16 QB pressures,10 tackles for loss and five sacks. He still has two years of eligibility.

Heldt fills an immediate need, as the Tigers struggled to find consistency at the spot opposite of T.J. Parker last season.

At one time, Clemson had two big-time defensive ends committed in the 2025 class. 4-stars Bryce Davis and Ari Watford. While Watford went on to sign with the Tigers, Davis flipped to Duke back in the summer.

“We didn’t anticipate signing a defensive line portal guy,” Swinney said from the Smart Family Media Center on Wednesday. “We had two great ones committed and we were taking two.”

Seeing as Davis was a Top 60 recruit, Swinney believed the best way to replace that kind of loss was through the portal. Add in that Watford suffered a torn ACL during his senior season in high school and that only amplified the need.

“As you know, things can change in recruiting,” Swinney added. “We had a young man decide to back out and go somewhere else. There wasn’t anybody left to recruit to fill the need that we needed. So we have a gap. We have to use the portal and we needed a high-level guy and we got the guy that I wanted to get.”

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