Ronan Hanafin has officially moved over to the defensive side of the ball for Clemson.

Head coach Dabo Swinney confirmed on Tuesday that Hanafin is no longer playing receiver and was moved to the defense during fall camp. He is now listed as a defensive back on the school website. The former 4-star recruit played both ways in high school so he has a lot of familiarity playing on the defensive side.

“We moved him to defense about three weeks ago,” Swinney said. “We really are excited about Ronan and that is how we recruited him. A lot of people offered him as a defensive player. Alabama offered him as a defensive player. Some people offered him as a receiver.”

Swinney noted that during his recruitment they really liked what they saw on film from him as a linebacker, but that Hanafin wanted to try and play receiver. Now that he has had a year in the program, the feeling is he is more of a natural on the defensive side of the ball.

“I told him family up front when we evaluated him as a defensive player, he was a no-brainer,” Swinney said. “It was harder for me to evaluate him as a receiver because he just rank by people, jumped up and caught the ball, ran a slant. It was just harder to evaluate that as a true wide receiver. And I told him up front, and the one thing I believe in is you let a kid play what he wants to play.”

“He is one of the best pure football players on this team, this kid is special. He can flat-out play the game. But after spending a year with him, I just think he is more apt on the defensive side. Just turn on the special teams tape. He almost blocked a pun the other night. He is the first guy down. he is unbelievable.”

Hanafin, who was rated as a Top 200 talent coming out of high school, played  just 41 offensive snaps as a freshman but did see action in 11 of the 13 games. Most of his time came on special teams.

With the position switch being made during camp, Swinney said that has put Hanafin behind from a knowledge standpoint and that it will take time for him to develop. Until then, you can expect to keep seeing him shine on special teams.

“The unfortunate thing for him right now is we just moved him in camp. So he is certainly behind a little bit. He doesn’t know how to make the cake. We just handed him a fork and said here you go. We got to get a foundation built for him.”

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