Clemson Tigers Lose Freshman OL for Season

Clemson Tigers freshman offensive lineman Easton Ware is out for the season due to a shoulder injury requiring surgery, while wide receiver Antonio Williams and safety Khalil Barnes are limited with hamstring injuries.

“Easton Ware is gonna be out,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said on Wednesday. “Easton, he’s been battling a shoulder. We were going to try and get him through the year, but it kind of came out again, so they’ve got to go ahead and do surgery on him, so Easton will be out for the year. He’ll redshirt. He’s a true freshman, so he was one of those guys right there in the mix.”

Williams left the game against LSU in the first series and didn’t return. Clemson isn’t pushing him ahead of their game on Saturday against Troy. A matchup in which the Tigers are 32.5-point favorites.

“Just a little,” Swinney said when asked how much Williams had practiced this week. “We’ll put out an availability report, I guess the first one goes out… tomorrow? Oh, Georgia Tech week. We’ll put one out Georgia Tech week,” Swinney said with a sheepish grin.

Teams aren’t required to submit injury reports for non-conference games, but Swinney didn’t sound like he was planning on keeping things under wraps.

“We’ll let you know later in the week where we are.” 

Tight end Ian Schieffelin is set to return after a one-game suspension. Schieffelin is attempting to make the jump from the hardcourt to the gridiron. His progress was temporarily halted by a DUI arrest, in which the charges were subsequently dropped. 

“He’s working his way back,” Swinney said of Schieffelin. “He had a really good camp. He’s made a ton of progress. He’s just one of our tight ends, waiting on an opportunity and just preparing every day to get better and better.”

As they prepare for the game against Troy, Clemson will look to increase the contributions of players like Schieffelin as Williams works his way back to full health. The Tigers won’t push him on Saturday against Troy, but it might be a good opportunity to get players like the 6-foot-7 and 260-pound Schieffelin into the mix.   

The Clemson Tigers play the Troy Trojans of the Sun-Belt Conference this Saturday at home at 3:30 PM EST on the ACC Network.