During his radio show Monday night, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney revealed that the Tigers are not going to redshirt true freshman wide receiver Ronan Hanafin after originally planning to redshirt him this season.

On Tuesday during his weekly press conference, Swinney elaborated on the decision to take the redshirt off of Hanafin, who enrolled at Clemson this past summer after signing with the program in December 2022.

Swinney attributed the change of plan with Hanafin to redshirt freshman receiver Cole Turner going down with a season-ending injury.

“Had it not been for Cole going down, we would’ve probably stayed the course with (Hanafin),” Swinney said.

Swinney said the Tigers considered “the longevity of the season” when ultimately deciding to not redshirt Hanafin, with Swinney adding that Hanafin is set to be a “core special teams guy” for Clemson going forward.

“We knew that Ronan could help us on special teams right away, because we’re a little thin right there as far as a core guy,” Swinney said. “He did a great job for us last week, and so he’s a guy that needs to be a core guy for us moving forward.”

A former four-star prospect, Hanafin is a versatile athlete who contributed in a variety of ways at Massachusetts’ Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, beginning his prep career at cornerback as a freshman before playing receiver and linebacker/safety most of his career. He also returned punts.

The 6-foot-3, 210-pounder made his college debut vs. Charleston Southern (nine snaps) and contributed on special teams vs. both Florida Atlantic and Florida State.

As he makes an immediate impact for Clemson on special teams, Swinney believes Hanafin is only “going to keep getting better as a receiver.”

“He’s a very, very mature kid, very conscientious kid,” Swinney said. “He can run, he’s tough. He’s got ball skills.”

–Photo by Kevin Vandervort