Clemson Football: Jackson Carman’s dad is happy his son chose Clemson

On Saturday, No. 2 Clemson(10-0) went into Chestnut Hill, MA and defeated No. 17 Boston College Eagles(7-3) 27-7 and gave them their first home loss of the season. The Tigers’ offense faced a tough defense with two terrific defensive ends and were able to contain them despite losing All-American Mitch Hyatt early in the second half.

When No. 2 Clemson defeated No. 17 Boston College 27-7, they did it without having left tackle Mitch Hyatt, an Outland Trophy semifinalist, for most of the second half of the crucial game. Hyatt was experiencing stingers and true freshman Jackson Carman was thrust into action to complete the game.

The 6-foot-6, 340 pound Ohio native was matched up with Wyatt Ray, one of the best defensive ends in the ACC, for a half and didn’t surrender a tackle for loss or a sack on the night.

Carman, a former five-star recruit, was highly regarded by the Ohio State Buckeyes staff but spurned them to become a Tiger.

After making his decision, some Buckeyes’ fans took to Twitter to express their displeasure with his choice. One particular tweet by Ari Wasserman, a writer for The Athetic, sparked the ire of fans and conversations of negative recruiting by Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney. In the tweet, Wasserman said the following:

Dabo Swinney told Jackson Carman during his recruitment that Urban Meyer is on the back end of his career in terms of years left. “It wasn’t a major factor, but it was an underlying one,” Carman said.

Ken Carman, Jackson’s dad, who made the trip from Ohio to Alumni Stadium on Saturday, talked to us about his son’s decision to attend Clemson and his extensive playing time in front of a prime time audience.

Q) Before Saturday’s win over Boston College, Jackson had only received playing time when a game was out of hand. But Saturday night was different. How proud were you seeing him get so much time? 

I was thrilled, not just, about the amount of time, but the season was on the line. There was no mistaken that this was a critical game. And, yet, he went in, and they still did fine. I always gauge how he’s doing based on if they score, while he’s in. As long as, they’re moving down the field and scoring, he can’t be doing too bad.

Q) How did he feel about everything? 

Well, when I went out to the field, he was rushing over to me. Now, that normally don’t happen. It was awesome. He was so excited. That was the longest hug I’ve gotten from him in a long time. He was sweating and it was literally pouring down his face. He said, ah, man, I had fun. He enjoyed it.

Q) Let’s take a moment and look back at his recruitment. Why did he pick Clemson? 

He didn’t really open up about it. I kind of gave him his space. However, he did know that it was my preference, bar none. His mom visited Southern California and Clemson with him, and I took the visit to Ohio State. Clemson became her first choice after the visit too. He made the decision on his own, but I had been pushing for Clemson since he was thirteen.

Q) As he got close to making a decision, what was your pitch for Clemson over Ohio State? 

When Dabo and [Robby]Caldwell were up at his school, I had the pleasure of being there. I told Jackson, at the time, I said look, you can go to Ohio State and be just another name on the wall, because they have been a dominant program for a long time. But, right now, something special is happening at Clemson. If you go there, you can be a part of that foundation, and you will have more of a chance of being on a national championship team than anywhere else. That’s how I felt.

Q) His decision obviously didn’t go unnoticed by the home state Buckeyes’ fans and some were very outspoken on social media. Did you personally have to deal with some backlash over your son’s choice to attend Clemson? 

Me, personally, I didn’t. My Facebook friends and network, who are all staunch Ohio State fans were very encouraging. I didn’t dig deep, because I didn’t want to. But there was a fair amount of backlash on Twitter. The biggest story in my mind is what the people in Ohio and the recruiting agencies didn’t know. And that is how strong Jackson’s ties were to South Carolina. I lived down there twice. I moved into North Charleston one month before [Hurricane] Hugo hit and remained for four more years after Hugo hit. My present wife and I moved down there in 2011 and remained until 2016. I actually have two other children, Jackson’s half brother and sister, who were born in Charleston.

When I was there from 2012-2016, Jackson was with me each summer. At one time, he was even enrolled at Baptist Hill and was there for half a year. So he actually had more ties, through me, in South Carolina, then anyone knew.

Q) As a parent of a highly recruited athlete, can you tell people what it is like to see hurtful things said about your child. 

For my sake, selfishly, I just stayed out of it, because I knew it would be hard on me. On the other hand, I was so overwhelmed and pleased that he chose to go to Clemson that I didn’t worry about all that stuff happening in Ohio.

Q) Again let’s go back to a time before Jackson committed to Clemson, what did you initially think of Dabo Swinney? 

See, when I was living in South Carolina, I was managing a nature preserve. So I had a lot of contact with the Clemson faculty and some alumni. I had heard some things about Dabo. One day, I emailed Jackson’s mom and said, you know, I’ve been researching hard as I can on this guy and the worst thing I found anyone write is that he takes his faith too seriously. And then I said, that’s who we need.

Q) I know you have been fond of Clemson for years, but what do you think of Clemson, today? 

There’s a whole a lot of talk about the fun and family aspect at Clemson, and I have witnessed it myself. I have also seen such growth in Jackson since he’s been in school. It has reassured me that he made the right choice. The possibility of going to national championships and all that, it’s just icing on the cake. But I’ve seen a lot of things in Jackson that have me encouraged. I have been really proud of him and his maturity and the positive traits that are shining true in him.