Clemson Football: Could Tanner Muse play linebacker in 2019?

The Clemson football LB room took a hit when Shaq Smith entered his name in the NCAA Transfer Portal. Could Tanner Muse play the position in 2019?

Clemson football fans received some shocking news this past week when graduate linebacker Shaq Smith placed his name in the NCAA Transfer Portal.

Smith said that he didn’t want schools to contact him, which means that he likely knows where he wants to transfer.

Though he could still return to Clemson, it isn’t likely that Smith would withdraw his name from the transfer portal at this point.

With his absence, the Tigers have a little less depth than what they’d probably like to have at linebacker heading into this season.

The projected starters are Isaiah Simmons (a returner at SAM/Nickel), Chad Smith (MIKE) and James Skalski (WILL). After the three starters, the Tigers have Mike Jones Jr., Jake Venables, Baylon Spector and a plethora of talented freshmen to fill in the depth chart.

With the lack of depth and experience, could a veteran at safety move inside to linebacker? Tanner Muse could be an option for the Tigers.

Thoughts:

Muse is going to start at free safety this season, as he has for the last couple of years. But, there’s potential that he could move to that WILL position at times with the depth that the Tigers have at safety.

Clemson has K’Von Wallace, Nolan Turner, Denzel Johnson and talented freshman Joseph Charleston to play the safety position, should Muse split time over at linebacker.

If the Tigers chose to put Muse at linebacker, the physicality certainly wouldn’t drop off and he’d add an extra dimension of athleticism to the defense. Though Muse struggles at times in coverage at safety, he’d fit in perfectly handling the duties of a WILL linebacker in coverage, in my opinion, because the matchups would be much more favorable for him.

Muse couldn’t play full-time at WILL because he’s just not quite big enough. He weighs in at about 230 pounds, while Skalski and some of the other linebackers that will play the position are between 240-245 pounds.

This could be an option, however, for the Tigers during games to add depth to the linebacker room and perhaps put a bit more speed on the field in passing situations.