CLEMSON – As a top-ranked football program, Clemson Football attracts top-ranked prospects. The annual Dabo Swinney Football Camp is one way those two things meet.
Last week, running back Andrew “Jerry” Beard attended the camp and ran drills with the rest of the rushers, led by assistant coach CJ Spiller. A member of the Prince Avenue High School football team in Bogart, GA., Beard earned himself a four-star ranking as a top 15 running back nationally on popular recruiting sites for his play and performance.
After playing as a starting safety during his freshman year of high school at Lincoln County, Beard and his family moved to Bogart, where his football career fully took off. Last season, his first year at Prince Avenue, he rushed for 1,937 yards with 28 touchdowns, leading the team in both statistical categories. He averaged 138 yards per game on the ground.
Beard has been around football all of his life. His father, Jerry Beard Sr., was a running back at App State from 2000-02, and his uncle is Garrison Hearst, who starred for Georgia at the same position before moving on to the NFL.
“I’ve been playing football since I was about five or six years old,” Beard told The Clemson Insider. “My dad played football, my uncle played football, so for my first starter sport, they put me in football, and I fell in love with it.”
His parents are his biggest supporters. They help support him in his athletic career, traveling with him to camps and visits, as well as getting him involved with Prep Redzone exposure, which allows him to receive more national coverage and attention.
Beard has now camped at Clemson each of the past two years and expressed his enjoyment of being back on campus, around the culture and feel of the Clemson Football program and staff.
“I love Coach Swinney and what he is doing over at Clemson,” Beard said. “And, of course, they keep on winning, so it is hard not to see that all the time. He came to my school during the spring to invite me to the camp, so I knew I had to come back.”
His skills at running back were on obvious display during his past season and at camp, but there is always room for improvement and development. Beard acknowledged a lot of what he came out with from camp and the value of those things.
“Really being patient with my route running,” Beard said. “It’s not about how fast you get there, but it’s about what you do when you get there and how smooth you are while you’re doing it.”
After high school, Beard hopes to play football while majoring in Business or a related degree, which would help him with his ideal future business in retailing and house flipping. With around 30 offers, he told us that his top choices are Oklahoma, Georgia, Penn State, and Clemson. However, he has yet to receive an official offer from the Tigers.
Beard will head to Florida later this month for a visit while preparing and training for his upcoming junior year, where he will certainly look to build upon his massive sophomore campaign, hoping to gain more eyes while doing it.