Folks, it's happening. After rumors swirled earlier on Wednesday afternoon, a report from Clemson247 surfaced saying that a source confirmed that Ian Schieffelin is joining the Clemson football team as a tight end.
As first reported by TigerIllustrated, there was some chatter early on Wednesday that Schieffelin may just be hanging up the hoops uniform for cleats and shoulder pads.
According to the Clemson247 report, Schieffelin is "planning" on joining the football team as a tight end this upcoming season which makes sense because the Tigers have limited depth at the position with Jake Briningstool moving on and Markus Dixon moved to the defensive side of the ball.
Olsen Patt-Henry is currently the team's projected starter at tight end with plenty of inexperienced talent behind him like Christian Bentancur and Logan Brooking. Why not add a guy like Schieffelin to the room to mix things up and give Dabo Swinney what he's been long talking about?
For years, Swinney has "joked" about adding Schieffelin to the football team when his basketball career is over and it looks like he wasn't actually joking.
The 6-foot-8, 240-pound Schieffelin is sure to cause some problems for opposing defenses this upcoming season as he brings athleticism and size and even a football background with him to the tight end position.
And it appears that Schieffelin had thought about the idea last fall when he told reporters that he could play some tight end because "I actually have pretty good hands."
It's not often you see a basketball player turn to football but, hey, Antonio Gates was a hooper before he became a Hall of Fame tight end. Not saying the two are comparable, but basketball players have had success on the gridiron before.