Clemson Football: Three sleeper players for the Tigers in 2023

Jaedyn Lukus

With the return of Sheridan Jones, a cornerback group that felt awfully young in 2022 comes back in 2023 with a fair amount of experience. Nate Wiggins will handle the other side, and the first two off the bench will be Toriano Pride and Lukus.

Pride and Lukus were important recruits in the Class of 2022. Not only were they going to be counted on for depth last season, but the thought was that one of them would likely need to step into the starting lineup in 2023.

While Lukus was the higher-rated prospect coming out of high school, he dealt with injuries last year. His spring was cut short and he had to fight back with rehab to be ready to play during the season.

As a result, Pride had more time to prepare and saw the field a lot more in 2022 than Lukus. Lukus fought through the injury to play as much as possible in 2022. He also decided to get some field time in spring ball before having surgery to fix his shoulder so it could be healed before the 2023 fall camp started.

Jones’s return means that neither Pride nor Lukus will need to be ready to start at the beginning of 2023, but Jones had his fair share of injury-bad luck in 2022 too. Pride will likely remain the first guy off the bench, but if Lukus is finally healthy, he will have an opportunity to show out for the first time in a Tiger uniform.