This offseason has been a bit of a weird one for Clemson. For the first time in over a decade, the Tigers are an afterthought when it comes to any championship conversations. Expectations are the lowest they have been in the Dabo Swinney era, and there are plenty of question marks surrounding this team.
The most unsettling part of this is that the position group with the most concerns at the moment is defensive tackle. That is unusual for a program that consistently has at least one interior defensive lineman that is taken in the early rounds of the NFL draft.
That uncertainty around the position heading into the 2026 season mostly centers around the lack of experience in the group. There’s a lot of young talent in the defensive tackle room, but who will step up and become the anchor for the front?
Kourtney Kelly Injury
One player who was in the running to be that anchor was West Georgia transfer Kourtney Kelly. The redshirt sophomore was brought in out of the transfer portal to be a key part of the Tigers’ defensive interior.
Kelly was going to have a chance to compete for a starting job this fall. He entered the Clemson program after an impressive 2025 season in which he had 17 total tackles, seven tackles for loss, four sacks, and a fumble recovery. Kelly was reportedly having a good spring until he tore his right ACL.
It happened during a team scrimmage on March 18th, and Kelly had surgery the next day. It was a huge blow to the Clemson interior, but will force other players on the roster to step up.
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