A dynamic two-way player from nearby Daniel High School, Misun “Tink” Kelley began his Clemson career as a wide receiver but is now mixing in with the first-team defense as a defensive back.  

The 5-foot-9, 185-pound redshirt sophomore had a pick-six in Clemson’s first scrimmage of fall camp this past Saturday, and head coach Dabo Swinney said afterward that the Tigers believe Kelley has found the best position for him at DB.

“Tink’s a good football player. … Tink has really come on, and we feel like we’ve got him in the right spot,” Swinney said.

Kelley, who enrolled at Clemson in the summer of 2023, caught five passes for 27 yards in 81 offensive snaps across nine games in 2024. Injuries have been a factor for Kelley, who was in line for more playing time as a true freshman in 2023, but ended up being limited to only nine offensive snaps over two games while redshirting. That year, he eventually underwent a minor surgery to repair an issue he had dealt with since his prep days.

While the Tigers like what Kelley has shown as a wideout, they wanted to get a closer look at him as a defensive back, so they had him spend the majority of spring practice this year working on defense.

His transition to DB has continued in fall camp, and his experience at wide receiver is proving beneficial while playing on the other side of the ball and going up against the slot receiver position that he’s very familiar with.

“It helped me out a lot when I play DB,” Kelley said on Tuesday, “because I’ve kind of got a feel for what the receivers are doing, what they really want by their split, and what the offense really likes to do. Like our offense, it helped me a lot because I used to play receiver, in the slot, so I kind of know what the slots are wanting to do.”

Facing off in practice against talented slot receivers like Antonio Williams and Tyler Brown is only helping Kelley prepare for the type of playmakers that he’ll see on opposing teams during the upcoming season.

“It’s good going against our receivers, too… Going against dudes like that [Williams and Brown] in practice helps me have a lot more confidence playing against the next games we’ve got coming up,” Kelley said. “We’ve got a lot of good receivers… We’ve got a pretty good group of guys.”

Kelley pointed to the pre-snap process as one area in which he has room to grow going forward.

“Probably just knowing what’s around me, getting better,” he said. “Because like I said, I just got on defense, so my pre-snap process is going to be a little different than what it was on offense.”

Before he arrived at Clemson two years ago, Kelley helped Daniel to 3A state titles in 2020 and 2021 and helped the Lions to a 36-game winning streak from 2020-22. He played multiple positions and scored touchdowns in five different ways as a senior, and he finished his prep career with 91 receptions for 1,332 yards and 16 touchdown catches, while adding 15 career rushing attempts for 250 yards and five more scores. He also recorded 86 tackles with eight interceptions and four pass breakups in 42 games defensively.