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Clemson football 2019 Preview by Position: Tight End

By Shawn Spencer

ARLINGTON, TEXAS - DECEMBER 29: The Clemson Tigers celebrate after defeating the Notre Dame Fighting Irish during the College Football Playoff Semifinal Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic at AT&T Stadium on December 29, 2018 in Arlington, Texas. Clemson defeated Notre Dame 30-3. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
ARLINGTON, TEXAS - DECEMBER 29: The Clemson Tigers celebrate after defeating the Notre Dame Fighting Irish during the College Football Playoff Semifinal Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic at AT&T Stadium on December 29, 2018 in Arlington, Texas. Clemson defeated Notre Dame 30-3. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /
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The position that potentially presents the most questions for the 2019 Clemson football season is at tight end. Here’s our preview for the position.

Throughout the month of August, Rubbing the Rock will be breaking down each position for the 2019 Clemson football team individually.

The Tigers are coming off a year in which they won the National Championship and finished with a perfect 15-0 season.

Now, Clemson is expected to be right back up at the top, competing for yet another berth into the CFB Playoff.

As we continue our positional breakdowns, let’s take a look at the tight end position.

Projected Depth Chart:

Starter: JC Chalk

  • Jaelyn Lay
  • Davis Allen
  • JL Banks

Tight End Preview:

The Tigers don’t have many options when looking at their tight ends in 2019. Braden Galloway, a sophomore, was expected to be the starter coming into this season, but he will be serving a year-long suspension after trace amounts of the banned substance Ostarine was found in his system before the CFB Playoff last season.

Galloway has since had tests and was tested earlier in the season and didn’t have the substance show up, but he’ll still be banned from NCAA sanctioned competition this coming year.

With him gone, that leaves veteran JC Chalk as the starter and a bunch of unknowns behind him. Chalk is a block-first kind of tight end who has decent hands, but won’t be relied upon too heavily in the passing game.

He’ll have two freshmen- Jaelyn Lay and Davis Allen- listed behind him as the only other scholarship options at the position. Lay is an extremely athletic tight end who is able to block at a high level, but his hands are certainly a question mark coming into the season. Allen is a versatile tight end who shows promise on film, but has yet to practice a snap with the Clemson football team.

dark. Next. 5 biggest concerns coming into the 2019 season

Lack of experience doesn’t have to be a defining quality for this position, but it certainly will be expected that the Tigers go with a lot of ’10 personnel’ in 2019 as a way to get more wide receivers on the field.

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