Highly touted Clemson freshman defensive lineman Peter Woods earned a superlative from ESPN this week.

ESPN handed out a list of skill superlatives for college football true freshmen (subscription required), recognizing the best of those first-year players at various skills.

Among the D-line superlatives, Woods was pegged as having the “best hand usage for a pass-rusher”:

The top-rated defender in the 2023 class could slot into several of these categories but lands here as he makes up for any size deficiencies with quick and violent hands. Whether quickly pressing and shedding blockers to defend the run or knocking blockers’ hands down as a pass-rusher, he makes it difficult to get hands on him. This is usually one area where many top prospects need to improve upon entering college, but Woods is already strong with this skill, which should lead to an immediate impact for Clemson.

Woods enrolled at Clemson in January after signing with the Tigers this past December as one of the nation’s top prospects in the 2023 class, and the former five-star recruit generated no shortage of buzz and hype this spring while garnering plenty of praise for his impressive play on the field.

The 6-foot-3, 300-plus pounder was ranked as high as the No. 4 overall prospect in his class by ESPN, which billed him as the best defender in his class regardless of position.

Woods finished his career at Thompson High (Alabaster, Ala.) with 260 tackles, 72 tackles for loss and 29.5 sacks. He shined during Clemson’s April 15 spring game when he tallied seven total tackles, including a sack and tackle for loss, and also powered his way through the line to block an extra-point attempt in the fourth quarter.

At Clemson’s media outing last week, defensive tackles coach Nick Eason once again spoke highly of Woods, with Eason saying he sees things in Woods that he hasn’t seen before and adding that he’s “very much advanced and ahead” of other players his age.

“He hasn’t played a down yet, but I can tell you this — he definitely has the tools to be very dominant,” Eason said. “He has tools that I haven’t seen in a guy that just turned 18 years old.”

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