Clemson safety Lannden Zanders out for season

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney announced on his call-in show Monday night that safety Lannden Zanders is out for the year.

Zanders re-injured his shoulder during Saturday’s loss to Georgia. The injury occured during the second half on a hard collision.

Zanders played through a shoulder injury last season before having surgery in the offseason.

He said during fall camp that he was expecting to have a much better 2021 season.

“Before my injury I feel like I was playing my best football. Then I tore my shoulder in fall camp. Talking to the doctors and stuff, them telling me I would need surgery and whatnot, it kind of got to me mentally,” Zanders said last month. “So I feel like all year I was mentally down, not really focused on football, just really trying to protect myself and that really affected my game.”

Swinney said Clemson was hopeful the injury suffered Saturday wouldn’t be too serious, but it ended up being season-ending.

“We’re gonna do surgery, so he’ll be out for the rest of the year,” Swinney said. “So that’s going to be a long-term injury. Really hate that for him. But in the long run it might be the best thing for him. He can use this as a redshirt year and come back better than ever.”

Freshman safety Andrew Mukuba had already passed Zanders as Clemson’s starting safety this season but Zanders did start nine games last year and contributed defensively off the bench and on special teams on Saturday.

“Fortunately that’s a position we’ve got a little bit of depth,” Swinney said. “We’ve got a great group.”

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