Four years ago, Kam Cody almost lost his life on the practice field. But, very fortunately, he lived to tell the tale.

Cody, who is now a true freshman defensive tackle at Clemson, suffered a cardiac event during a football practice in 2022 when he was a freshman at Benedictine Military School in Savannah, Ga. Thankfully, Cody was revived and brought back to life.

In March 2025, Dennis Knight of the Savannah Morning News detailed the scary incident:

As a freshman, he had a cardiac incident at an October Benedictine practice and stopped breathing on the sideline. Benedictine trainers Brian Tuten and Ed Livingston performed CPR and shocked Cody’s chest three times with an automated external defibrillator to save his life after he stopped breathing. Cody was unable to breathe on his own for nearly 40 minutes as he was whisked to the hospital in an ambulance with BC coach Danny Britt riding alongside his player.

Cody, who received a scholarship offer from Arkansas as an eighth grader, never lost sight of his football goals during a lengthy recovery. He had an ICD (an Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator) installed in his heart, and was back on the field for the Cadets’ season opener his sophomore year.

After returning to football following the cardiac event, Cody earned the Courage Award from the Coastal Empire Sports Awards.

During a recent episode of Clemson Football’s official podcast, 2 Right Turns, Cody reflected on the near-death experience.

“It was a normal day,” Cody said. “I was getting ready to take the PSAT. I got to school, and it was a half day, so we got done around like 12:30 and practice started at like 1:45. I got dressed, we warmed up and everything like that, then we did team stretch [exercises]. And we went to go do our water break, and then all of a sudden I just collapsed. My heart stopped beating for 11 minutes, and my brain didn’t get oxygen for five minutes.”

Experiencing a situation like that at such a young age has helped shape Cody’s perspective in life, as well as football.

“It really taught me that everything isn’t guaranteed, and if you’re going to do something, do it with all your heart,” Cody said.

A disruptive interior defensive lineman, Cody signed with Clemson last December and enrolled early in January.

Cody entered the December early signing period having tallied 248 career tackles, 37 tackles for loss, 22.5 sacks, two fumble recoveries and a forced fumble. He was credited to that point with 71 tackles (13 for loss), 5.5 sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery in his senior season, when he selected as GHSA Region 1-4A Defensive Player of the Year.

He was an All-Greater Savannah first-team selection as a junior, when he tallied 89 tackles (11 for loss) and 8.5 sacks, and earned Class 4A first-team all-state honors from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and an all-region selection after leading his team to a Class 4A quarterfinal berth.

“My game is violent, and I’m a man of the game. I’m a student of the game, really,” the 6-foot-3, 280-pound Cody said, describing himself as a player. “I make sure my technique and everything, it aligns in what I’m going out to achieve on the field.”

Cody, a former three-star prospect, committed to Clemson on March 29, 2025.

Cody knew he wanted to eventually be a Tiger, way back when he camped at Clemson. Funny enough, it was actually at a basketball camp where he fell in love with Tigertown, not a football camp.

“I came here for a basketball camp in the seventh grade,” Cody recalled. “I had hoop dreams and all that. I thought I was going to be a basketball player. And I came here and just fell in love with the campus. I knew from day one, being on campus… I knew, yeah, this is where I’m gonna be.”