Clemson football has talent all over the field in 2021.
When you recruit the way that Clemson football does, there are guys that will naturally get lost in the shuffle. The only way you stay competitive and not fall into the trap of comfortability is to recruit players that are better than what you currently have.
Either the guys that are on campus and in your program will work harder and get better or they fall to the side and transfer to play elsewhere.
While Clemson football head coach Dabo Swinney is loyal to his guys, he also understands what it takes to stay at the level that the Tigers are currently playing at.
Coach Swinney likes to tote the company line and say nonsense like “we can win with any quarterback on this roster” and we all know it is simply not true. We also know he isn’t the type of coach to call out guys for lack of talent – especially when they work hard and are great students.
There is one player in this program that could benefit from a position change.
Positional changes happen all the time. We can go through the last 30 years of Clemson football to see the guys that have benefitted from changing position and not only did they flourish but they went on to make a lot of money at the next level.
The player that would benefit most from changing his position, backup quarterback Taisun Phommachanh.
No offense to this young man, he works his tail, and his teammates love him but he simply has not been good enough to make a difference at quarterback. Sure, it doesn’t help that he arrived during the Trevor Lawrance and D.J. Uiagalelei era, however, if you paid attention when guys got to play in mop-up duty, Hunter Helms was far better than Phommachanh.
While no one outside the program knows if a conversation has been had with Taisun and what other position he could possibly play but at 6-3 220 pounds and is a terrific athlete, he could help the wide receivers and provide more depth or maybe even safety.
While Phommachanh has always been a quarterback, there are times when elite guys get to this level and simply do not have what it takes to play their natural position anymore.
For those that can’t, they either transfer to a level where they can still play their desired position or they switch positions to make an impact where they are.
Clemson football fans don’t like to see guys transfer but we understand that they have goals and dreams that they have worked their entire lives for. I would just hate to see Taisun Phommachanh spend his entire college career as a third-string quarterback and not at least try to make an impact on the field at another position.