Dabo Swinney breaks down what Trent Pearman brings at quarterback as a walk-on

Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney has carried quarterback Trent Pearman as a walk-on since the 2022 season. During that time, he’s seen him grow in strides for the team.

Swinney believes that Pearman, despite not being a scholarship player, is a good prospect and has plenty of potential. Because of that, he’s very happy with the current state of the Clemson quarterback room.

“That’s why we tried to get him to come,” Dabo Swinney said. “He was a really good player. Saw him every game that he played. Won a couple championships and a couple of high accolades, postseason awards and things like that. That’s why we got him here, and that’s why we didn’t go take a quarterback because we really like our roster.”

In the 2024 recruiting cycle, Clemson did not add a quarterback to its roster. Dabo Swinney also didn’t add any players through the Transfer Portal. That left Clemson with four quarterbacks currently listed on its roster for the 2024 season.

“We’ve got another preferred walk-on coming in. But we feel really good about Cade [Klubnik]. We feel great about [Christopher Vizzina]. We feel great about Trent and his development. He’s still developing. He lacks some things that you’d like, but he makes up for it in other areas, and he’s just a really good player,” Swinney said.

“His role has already changed because he went from just being the scout-team guy to actually getting a chance to get some reps. And same thing for CV – he went from just watching and mentally really trying to get the system down, to now a chance to go compete in the spring. Those guys did a great job, they really did. All of them, and really proud of where they are. Got a big summer ahead, and then we’ll add Ethan [Anderson] when he gets here. So, we think it’s a good room.”

Dabo Swinney also added that Clemson has found success in the past despite a lack of depth at the quarterback position, with only two true quarterbacks being on the team for its last national championship.

“I know the last time we won the national championship, our third-team guy was Hunter Renfrow,” Swinney said. “So, I definitely think Pearman is a step above ole Hunter when it comes to quarterback, and our fourth-team was [punter] Will Spiers, and we found a way to have a great year that year with just Trevor [Lawrence] and Chase [Brice]. So, we’ve got a lot of work to do, but we like the guys in the room.”