GLENDALE, Ariz. — The first time he saw him, Artavis Scott was amazed at what he saw.

“Who is this dude right here,” Clemson’s All-ACC wide receiver asked. “This dude is pretty good.”

Here was this 5-foot-10, 155-pound walk-on running passing routes with such precision, and snagging passes out of the air, Scott thought he had to be a scholarship player.

“I was like, ‘Why isn’t he on scholarship?’ It must be because people underestimated him,” Scott said. “Okay, let me see what he does with pads on … He was out there snagging them. I was like, ‘This man is real. Coach (Dabo) Swinney, go ahead and give this man a scholarship.’

“People were out there trying to tell me this man wasn’t good. But I kept telling them, I know good when I see it.”

Hunter Renfrow, who played quarterback in a triple-option offense in high school, has been very good for top-ranked Clemson. His 35-yard catch-and-run against No. 4 Oklahoma in last week’s Orange Bowl victory propelled the Tigers to Monday’s National Championship Game against No. 2 Alabama in the desert in Arizona.

What a lot of people don’t know is Renfrow could have been a scholarship athlete, but not at Clemson. Renfrow was offered several scholarships by FCS schools, but he knew he could play big-time college football so he took a chance.

Instead of going to a smaller school where he was almost certain to become a starter, Renfrow decided to be a preferred walk-on at Clemson, knowing the chances of playing where extremely thin.

But it did not take long for Renfrow to get noticed. After already impressing Scott and a few other wide receivers, he started to get the attention of the coaches, too. But at 155 pounds, Renfrow was not big enough to play big-time college football, especially with the level of physicality Swinney wants to play with in his smash-spread offense.

So Renfrow redshirted and hit the weight room, and at the same time continued to cause the coaches to marvel at what he was doing.

“I was going against the No. 1 defense in the nation and it helped me tremendously with my confidence,” the Myrtle Beach native said. “Going against Mackensie Alexander every day helped me know I had the ability to do it.”

Renfrow developed his skills as a wide receiver in the backyard when he was growing up. One of 60 cousins they would gather at Thanksgiving for an epic football game.

“I was kind of in the middle. There was always someone who was better than me,” he said. “We would argue so there would always be an excuse, and you have to win in any way so we got into a lot of fights. It was not two-hand touch until we got in high school. We would get in trouble if something happened if we continued that.”

The games would always be played in the backyard at his grandparent’s home. The sides were 20-20 and all the uncles played too.

“We have a lot of good athletes in our family,” Renfrow said.

Renfrow is one of them. He was a star quarterback in high school and could do just about anything on the football field. He played defense, returned kicks and was the punter.

Playing in the backyard played a big role in that.

“Running the option at quarterback, you still had to move people’s hips, kind of use leverage and take angles,” he said. “Also, in the backyard, you don’t get pass interference calls. So you had to fight through it.”

Those experiences in the backyard are now paying off for him and the Tigers. Renfrow went from walk-on to starter by the Louisville game and he has not lost a grip on it since. The redshirt freshman has hauled in 26 passes for 404 yards and three touchdowns this year.

In the Louisville game, he caught his first career touchdown – a 32-yard pass from quarterback Deshaun Watson.

“I about missed it,” he said smiling, “and dropped it on my hip.”

But he didn’t, and instead he walked into the end zone with no one around him in the Tigers’ 20-17 victory. A few weeks later, Renfrow made another big catch down the sideline that helped Clemson knock off No. 6 Notre Dame.

Then against NC State, on Halloween, he caught a 57-yard touchdown pass. He got so wide open on that play after making the safety fall down as he tied to turn himself around. Renfrow stuck his right foot to sell the out-rout and then suddenly changed his direction and ran a post.

Renfrow teammates say they love to watch him play because he is always teaching them a new move or a new technique.

“There are just the little things that he does, he probably doesn’t even know he does it,” Scott said. “But I’m just watching and observing. I try to do anything I can to help my game out. There are just certain things that are just great to see.”

And everyone loved seeing Renfro get in the end zone against Oklahoma.

“He just comes up with big plays,” Watson said.

Not bad for a walk-on