Dabo Swinney: Clemson would love to have R.J. Mickens back next season

While he isn’t yet certain what senior safety R.J. Mickens plans to do with his final year of eligibility after graduating, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney knows what he’d like the defensive back to do: Come back for a fifth year.

The NFL draft is enticing and a real option for Mickens, Swinney said, but he also seemed to intimate that the safety might be better off spending one more year in college. Either way, Swinney is still waiting on a final word.

“As far as I know. He’s graduating. We’ve got a bunch of guys graduating and his intention is to go pro, that’s what he said from Day 1. But he’s not — obviously we’d love for him to stay, but I don’t know that he’s made that decision yet. But nothing’s really changed from where he was, at this point. He’s maybe still trying to decide what he wants to do there, whether he wants to go pro or come back for another year or whatever,” Swinney said.

Mickens has played in 46 career games across four seasons, starting 14 during the last two campaigns. He’s got 120 career tackles and five interceptions, plus 6.5 tackles for loss.

Mickens is the son of former NFL and All-American defensive back Ray Mickens Sr.

Swinney is hopeful for some other reinforcements in the bowl game

The Tigers’ roster situation is a bit of a mess at the moment as — like most teams preparing for a bowl game — the Tigers have transfers, NFL draft entrants and recruits all coming and going, along with a slew of injuries to deal with.

At his press conference this week, Swinney was asked about a few of his injured players. Particularly, reporters wanted to know the status of wide receiver Antonio Williams, who has battled injuries all season long and has only appeared in four total games, with his last appearance coming during the Oct. 21 game vs. Miami (FL).

However, per Swinney, there are positive signs for Williams.

“Antonio, yeah, he looks great, he looks great. He was able to — it’s been good to see him bouncing around,” Swinney said.

Swinney noted that another receiver, Cole Turner, is also improving from his injury situation, though he’ll be unable to give it a go in the Gator Bowl. With Williams trending in a positive direction, Dabo Swinney is just happy to have one of them back.

“You know, Cole Turner’s looking good. He can’t play, but that’s two guys we really hadn’t had all year. Antonio played four games and really not even a full four games, you know, 3-plus games. And then Cole’s obviously been out since first game and a quarter. So both of those guys are doing well. But Antonio, you know, should be able to play,” Swinney said.