By Kaila Burns-Heffner.

With the start of March comes the highly anticipated spring practice season for the Clemson football team. The first practice has been written down in the books, and the Tigers were finally able to all come together to start building the future. Since 15 of the 26 new signees are already enrolled at Clemson, most of the team is able to work together.

“We had a lot of people graduate early and come in early, so a lot of our team is here now, we’re just waiting on a couple guys to get here in the summer,” said wide receiver Charone Peake. “That will help a lot coming into the fall.”

Although the high profile wide receiver signees Deon Cain and Ray Ray McCloud will not be in Clemson for the spring, redshirt freshman Trevion Thompson and new enrollee Shadell Bell are in attendance for spring ball and will begin to get worked into the mix with the more veteran receivers.

Peake, a redshirt senior, spent the last season battling a recurring knee injury and was unable to play in every games, but has been doing well with his recovery and is excited to take more of a leadership role.

“I still to this day do knee exercises even if I don’t need it, just to make sure I stay healthy because being unhealthy right now is the only thing that’s going to get me back,” Peake said.

Peake and Germone Hopper are the most experienced receivers left, but after their success in this past season, Mike Williams and Artavis Scott will also be able to provide some leadership and insight to the new incoming players.

“You know we’ve got playmakers. Artavis, GHop, Charone, and myself we’ve just to go out here and practice everyday and get better every day,” said Williams.

In recent years, Clemson has had a lot of talent come from the wide receiver position, especially with the successful NFL players, Sammy Watkins, DeAndre Hopkins, and Martavis Bryant. Williams credits that to the standard that has been set for Clemson wide receivers.

He mentioned that there are high expectations for the receivers given the success of the former players in the NFL.

“It has been raised a lot just to see what the NFL guys are doing. The standard here at Clemson has risen so we just have to live up to that standard,” Williams said.

Although Clemson’s core receivers were pretty clear last season, spring practice will give all the receivers the chance to compete against each other in hopes each one grow and get better. Although Clemson lost some older receivers, the remaining players will step up to fill the leadership roles and promote the high standard placed upon them to the rookie players.