During his press conference Thursday, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney updated the status of a veteran defensive tackle.

Swinney said redshirt junior Tre Williams (shoulder) is “trending in the right direction” but isn’t ready to play quite yet.

“He’s doing good. He’s not ready to play,” Swinney said. “He’s doing really good, though. He’s going to be ready to play, and we’re going to kind of see how it goes with him.”

Williams had to have his shoulder fixed again in the spring — the one that he injured in high school — and has missed a lot of the offseason.

The 6-foot-2, 305-pounder has had no shortage of injuries to deal with over his first three years at Clemson. As a true freshman in 2020, he saw 14 snaps over two games prior to a season-ending injury, then battled through injuries to his foot and both shoulders to play 11 games in 2021. He was held out of a couple more games last season as a precaution while dealing with inflammation in his knee.

“As y’all know, he’s been here and Lord have mercy, he’s had both shoulders, he’s had knees, he’s had a little bit of everything on his body he’s dealt with,” Swinney said.

Swinney added that the Tigers could possibly redshirt Williams if they’re able to hold him, with the depth they have at defensive tackle.

“We’re going to really try to kind of take it slow with him because we could get a year back with him,” Swinney said. “A lot of that depends on how we perform, if we can stay healthy at the D-tackle position. We do have a little bit of depth obviously with TD (Tyler Davis) and Ruke (Orhorhoro) back. So, he’s going to play and will be ready to play, but we’re going to kind of see. It’s something we’ve talked about and maybe if we can hold him as long as we can and let’s really just fortify his body and get him in a great spot, and then if we could steal a year back, that would be great for us and for him.

“But we don’t know right now, but he’s trending in the right direction. He’s doing good. He’s back in practice. He’s back in green (limited contact jersey) now.”

A former four-star and top-50 national prospect from St. John’s College High in Washington, D.C., Williams enters the 2023 season with 25 tackles (6.5 for loss), 2.0 sacks and a fumble recovery over 25 career games (one start). He posted eight tackles (1.5 for loss), a sack and a fumble recovery in 142 defensive snaps across 12 games last season.

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