Dabo Swinney recalls KJ Henry's redshirt request in his freshman year, praises him for growth

Clemson has been lucky this season to have fifth-year senior KJ Henry back with the squad. He’s already recorded 20 tackles, a sack and a forced fumble through Week 5 and he’s a big reason why the Tigers have maintained a clean record. Head coach Dabo Swinney discussed the senior edge-rusher at length going into Saturday’s game versus Boston College.

Swinney recounted Henry’s unique path at Clemson, which started when he asked to be redshirted as a freshman.

“That never happens, it’s very rare, a five-star guy and we really needed him, he’d just played his best game at Wake Forest,” Swinney said. “He just said, ‘Coach, I need power hour, I gotta get stronger.’ … A lot of kids like that, they don’t recognize that… So we made a little deal, I said, alright, that’s what we’ll do but if we get an injury or something, you’ll have to play, and it worked out.

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“He graduated… He could’ve easily moved on last year but he didn’t want to go be a sixth-round draft pick. He wanted to maximize his opportunity. Just a very self-aware kid.”

As much as he praised Henry, Swinney also credited the defensive lineman’s parents, both former athletes, for their job raising him.

Coming out of high school, Henry was the No. 1 recruit in the state of North Carolina. He was also No. 10 overall in the nation in the 2018 class, according to the On3 Consensus.

Swinney reveals Bryan Bresee won’t play in Week 6

Clemson will once again play in primetime this week. Kickoff versus BC is at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC. The Tigers will be without one of the defense’s best players following an announcement from Swinney on Monday.

Clemson got a crucial ACC win on Saturday against NC State but did so without star defensive lineman Bryan Bresee. He was in the hospital last week with a kidney-related issue, forcing him to miss his first game of the 2022 season. Now, Bresee seems to be on track to be out once again.

Dabo Swinney confirmed Bresee will be out when the Tigers hit the road to face Boston College this weekend. Although Bresee is doing well and “feels great,” there are still protocols in place for the defensive star to go through. If everything continues to go to plan, he will be back for Florida State.

“He’s not going to play this week,” Swinney said of Bresee during his Tuesday press conference. “I can tell you that. He’s doing really good. Really, really good. Everything is great but they got a protocol in place for him. So, they’re going to condition him this week and just push him every day. Started that yesterday.

“He feels great and all of his numbers are where they need to be. Just really kind of want to push him this week and if everything goes well, as they anticipate, then get him back going next week.”

On3’s Griffin McVeigh contributed to this report.