The safety position is approaching a changing of the guard in Tiger Town. Both Jalyn Phillips and Andrew Mukuba are upperclassmen and Clemson’s safeties coach has to retool the position in the coming years.

Luckily for him, the Tigers saw flashes of a great player during the spring. Throughout practice, freshman Khalil Barnes had the makings of a future star and it showed up in the spring game right in front of the Clemson faithful. He had the game-winning pick-six and it opened the eyes of many watching.

Safeties coach Mickey Conn has seen it firsthand, and his eyes lit up talking about Barnes during the 2023 Clemson Media Outing.

”He was amazing in the spring, I saw a playmaker. You go back and watch that spring game and he had a huge PBU, huge hit and a game-winning interception,” Conn said.

Coming out of North Oconee High School, Barnes was a three-star recruit and he’s already exceeding expectations before taking the field in the fall. With his versatility having played both sides of the ball, Conn and the Tigers have a wild card to use in their defense for years to come.

”The sky’s the limit for him,” Conn said. “For me coming in, it was ‘okay, can he understand defense, understand scheme and how it works’ and the answer to that is yes…he can play the nickel, he can play safety, he can do a lot.”