Dabo Swinney reveals Clemson veteran OL Trent Howard will return for 2024 season

Clemson has a big player back for the 2024 season, with coach Dabo Swinney revealing on Wednesday that offensive lineman Trent Howard will return for another season.

Howard is a veteran who has made three starts and appeared in 22 games, and Swinney had high praise for him.

“Trent’s back. Trent’s going to be back,” Dabo Swinney said at an early signing period press conference. “That’s huge for us, because we hadn’t lost a game since Trent started. He’s played a lot of football for us now. He’s a very experienced player. To know that he’s a guy that that gives us seven starters.

“Trent’s got, Trent can play both guards just like you saw last game, he played left guard and right guard. He’s got really good length and he’s a guy, too, that’s battled through some injuries and some things, so I think he’ll really attack this offseason.”

One of the reasons Swinney is high on Clemson’s potential going forward is the improvement on the offensive line. The Tigers were young and inexperienced there this year, but they took their lumps and should have plenty of experience returning next fall.

Swinney anticipates a health competition at center, of which Howard will be a part of.

“Seven guys that have started for us and won for us, it’s been a while since we’ve had that,” Dabo Swinney said. “And then again, (Ryan) Linthicum is going to have an opportunity. Trent’s going to have a chance to compete at center, so Linthicum, Trent, Harris (Sewell), all those guys, we’ll see how it shakes out. Linthicum will run out there first, he’s kind of been in that spot, but we’re really excited about him.

“So we’ve just got some guys that can give us some guys inside that can play three positions. Then we’ve got some guys at tackle that can play four positions, so that’s a really good situation.”

That versatility should be a definite boon for the Tigers. But the depth also served as a double-edged sword.

Swinney revealed that Clemson targeted four offensive linemen in the NCAA transfer portal, and the Tigers aren’t expected to land any of them.

“Seven of them have a ton of experience, so I’m excited about where we are. And frankly that’s kind of what hurt us with some of these portal guys,” Dabo Swinney said. “We really weren’t looking for a one-and-done guy, that really wasn’t what you needed. You bring a guy like that in you’re going to lose somebody. We like our guys. We don’t to lose any of those guys. We believe in Tristan (Leigh) and Collin (Sadler) and Blake (Miller) and those guys that, Marcus Tate, these are guys that can play tackle/guard for us. We’re really excited about them and where they are.”

Despite the fact that Swinney and the Tigers won’t capitalize in the transfer market on the offensive line, the head coach feels good about where his team stands.

“So we were really looking more for, and this is kind of, we didn’t know how it was going to play out with Mason (Johnstone), how it was going to play out with Elyjah (Thurmon), we ended up getting those guys, which was just a home run for us,” Dabo Swinney said. “But we were really looking for guys that had at least maybe three years left. We thought that would be a good fit for us.

“But as I say, they’ve got to choose you. You can try all you want, but they’ve got to choose you, and it’s hard when you’ve got seven starters coming back. There’s a reason, a lot of these guys are in the portal for a reason. They want to be the guy. And I can’t guarantee anybody’s going to be the guy. You get an opportunity to be the guy, but you’ve got to earn it. But thankfully it all worked out.”