Clemson football: Could Tiger QB signees never make it to campus?

Could Clemson football quarterback signees never make it to campus?

The Clemson football team could find itself in an interesting predicament this season if things played out a certain with a couple of its signees in the 2021 recruiting class.

The Tigers currently have three quarterbacks on the roster in D.J. Uiagalelei, Taisun Phommachanh and Hunter Helms with two signees from the 2021 class set to join the team later this summer in 3-star Bubba Chandler and 3-star Will Taylor, who is actually listed as an athlete.

The plan for Taylor at this point was to train him at quarterback for a season and then move him over to wide receiver where he could be used at both positions depending on need.

But there’s an intriguing little wrench that could get thrown into all of these plans: Baseball.

Both Chandler and Taylor are baseball stars. Both of the guys are signed to play for Monte Lee and that Clemson baseball team, but the MLB Draft might be enticing for them.

Clemson football could be forced to go to the NCAA Transfer Portal for a quarterback if this happened

According to Perfect Game, Chandler is considered a potential top-10 pick and an elite collegiate prospect. Taylor, likewise, is considered to be a top prospect in the coming MLB Draft, though he’s not likely to go in the first round (or the second round, for that matter).

However, we still have to consider the possibility that both are drafted and choose to begin their professional baseball careers.

Both guys have shown that they have the potential to MLB-level players one day and you never know what they might decide when they hear their name called in the draft. Could they still choose to come to Clemson? Absolutely. But we’ve seen many prospects in the past who were signed choose to go the route of the Minor Leagues. Others- like Seth Beer- took their chances by coming to school first.

But let’s just think about the ‘what if’ for a moment.

What if both Chandler and Taylor elected to go the baseball route and never made it on campus?

That right there would leave Clemson football with just three quarterbacks (two scholarship) on its roster. And then there’s another ‘what if.’

What if Taisun Phommachanh elected to take his talents elsewhere? There’s no indication that Phommachanh is going to transfer as he has been plugged into that backup role, but we can’t forget that he’s a former 4-star and there are many programs- even Power-5 schools- where he could be competing for a starting job.

If those two went baseball and we saw Phommachanh transfer- which certainly isn’t out of the question- we could see Clemson left with almost a doomsday scenario where the Tigers only have two quarterbacks on the roster and just one scholarship player (D.J. Uiagalelei).

At that point, Clemson would almost be forced to go the NCAA Transfer Portal to bring someone in just to have warm bodies at the position.

It’s not a likely scenario, but it is something to think about here in the midst of the spring as the MLB Draft looms large just a few months from now and the transfer market heats up beginning in just a few weeks.