Vic Burley arrived at Clemson in 2023 as a heralded former five-star prospect, a consensus top-100 recruit nationally and the Georgia 5A Defensive Player of the Year. After enrolling early in January 2023, he was poised to make an impact on the Tigers’ defensive line as a true freshman.

Unfortunately, 2023 ended up being a redshirt year for Burley, as he missed all of that season with knee injuries. Then, this past season, he was unable to stay healthy and wasn’t very available for much of the year, playing only 92 defensive snaps over eight games in 2024.

While Burley has some ground to make up, the 6-foot-4, 320-pound defensive tackle certainly has the ability. And he has taken a nice step forward this spring and summer going into his third year with the Tigers in 2025, according to head coach Dabo Swinney.

“He will be a redshirt sophomore. He kind of had some struggles early on, redshirted, missed a bunch of time due to injuries. And he just hadn’t really been able to put it together with any type of consistency,” Swinney said on Thursday afternoon before Clemson began camp.

“This spring was really the first time. We saw him, and we were like, OK, there it is. We saw flashes, and then he was hurt, and then he would be out. He missed a lot of time. So, he has had a good spring and a good summer.”

Along with playing hoops, Burley helped Warner Robins (Ga.) High School to state football championships in his sophomore and junior seasons and a state championship berth as a senior. He played 47 career games at the prep level, producing 188 tackles and 55 tackles for loss — including 22 sacks for -111 yards — and recorded an impressive 138 quarterback hurries.

While things haven’t gone the way Burley had hoped to this point in his Clemson career, Swinney believes in him and says he’s a guy the Tigers are “counting on” this season.

“We need him to take that next step for us this year,” Swinney said. “He can do it.”