GAINESVILLE, GA. — While his Gainesville team might have come up short, Clemson quarterback commit Kharim Hughley showed a lot of grit in Friday night’s 43-21 loss to Carrollton.

Make no mistake, the game was not nearly as lopsided as the final score might indicate, with the Trojans holding just a 29-21 lead with just over two minutes to go. And it is also worth mentioning that Carrollton is a 6A team, meaning Gainesville was stepping up a classification.

“We just got to come back next week,” Hughley told The Clemson Insider. “Watch the film, get some things cleaned up. I mean, we got a good team. We just didn’t play well at times. Then we came back and got in it, and then we got complacent. We got to learn how to finish as a team. We’ll get there and y’all will see us at state.”

After Carrollton went up 8-0 fairly quickly, Gainesville was able to tie it up midway through the second quarter on a 23-yard touchdown pass from Hughley. The Trojans would quickly retake the lead, and the Red Elephants were playing catch-up the rest of the night.

Hughley would finish the night with two touchdown throws and two interceptions. The final pick came with less than 30 seconds remaining, as Hughley was looking to make something happen on a fourth and long. It would end up being returned for a touchdown, giving Carrollton its final score of the game.

While he was off-target on two deep throws, he was also dead on the money on several others. And he was able to do that despite having to routinely deal with high snaps from the center. In the first half alone, three went over his head.

“I got to come back,” Hughley said. “Flush it and get ready for next week.”

Despite the loss, Hughley showed a lot of promise, and it is easy to see what the coaches at Clemson like so much about the four-star signal caller. He is patient, displays a lot of pocket presence, and is always looking down the field. Gainesville doesn’t run him much at all, but he moves around in the pocket very fluidly.

Hughley did confirm that a few teams have attempted to get him to open things back up, but he insists he is fully locked in.

“I am 100%,” Hughley said. “I ain’t going nowhere.”

Photo by Jason Priester