Dabo Swinney hopes Antonio Williams will be able to return for Clemson in bowl game

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

At his press conference this week, Clemson head coach Dabo 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 signs of life for Williams.

Antonio, yeah, he looks great, he looks great. He was able to — it’s been good to see him bouncing around,” said the Clemson coach during bowl preparation. That’s not to say Williams for certain will or won’t play in the Gator Bowl vs. Kentucky, but he does appear to be improved.

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+ 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.”

As far as injuries go, Clemson also does not expect defensive back Sheridan Jones to be available for the Gator Bowl. Jones played only one game in the month of November as he dealt with injury and it appears that one could have been his last in a Tigers uniform.

Even with more than two weeks until kickoff, Swinney is not confident that Jones will be healthy enough to play.

“He’s not gonna be able to go,” the coach said. “His hips, he got a shot the last couple of games to try to be ready and he’s been battling some migraines all year. He had to miss a game for that. He just doesn’t think he can do it. Maybe something changes there. I don’t know. Even if he couldn’t play, just having him ready to play would be a shot in the arm for us.”

That’s not a very optimistic report on Jones — or Turner. But at least Antonio Williams, one of the top performers off the 2022 Tiger offense, appears to be trending in the right direction to return for the bowl.