It’s nearly the middle of June and we still haven’t seen a 2019 Clemson football summer depth chart. Will the Tigers release one this year?
The typical tradition for the Clemson football program over the last few years has been to release a summer depth chart around the end of May.
May has come and gone, and we are nearly two weeks into June and still haven’t seen a summer depth chart.
Could the Tigers be getting away from the tradition for the sake of keeping things a little closer to the vest heading into the summer?
Thoughts:
A post-spring depth is certainly not a must. The vast majority of programs from around the nation don’t release any kind of depth chart following the events of the spring.
The Clemson football program is one of the most open to the media- as far as accessed is concerned- in the country. Dabo Swinney and the members of the coaching staff are consistently made available to the media. The Tigers make sure that several different Clemson football players give interviews throughout the season.
Perhaps, though, the program thinks it is time to keep things a little closer to the vest.
It’s not necessarily for competitive reasons, as much as it is just for the sake of the players. The summer depth chart is always a great talking point for members of the media, but it really doesn’t serve much of a purpose in the actual program.
The coaching staff already has its eyes set on what it wants and knows where the competition is happening and where they have starters locked in at. Last season, JD Davis was listed as a starter at linebacker and Tre Lamar was a backup, according to the summer depth chart.
When the real depth chart came out nearly four months later, Lamar was a starter as we all thought he would be all along. In today’s current age, with the current ‘NCAA Transfer Portal state-of-mind’ that athletes have today, it makes sense that the Tigers might refrain from releasing a summer depth chart.