Getting a cancer diagnosis as a college student has to be devastating.

That is exactly the situation Clemson defensive tackle Hevin Brown-Shuler currently finds himself in as the redshirt sophomore found out he had Hodgkin’s lymphoma about three weeks ago.

The news blindsided Brown-Shuler, and as someone who has dedicated so much of his life to football, the impact the disease would have on his ability to play was one of the first things that crossed his mind.

“I am a 20-year old kid, getting told I have cancer,” Brown-Shuler said during a press conference on Tuesday from the Smart Family Media Center. “The part that kind of messed with me was the football aspect, which was kind of crazy. I could not be out there with my team. The trigger for me was I could not play football for a season. But after you get over that, I am kind of using it as a building year for me personally. To build my mindset and show that I am mentally strong. That you can push through anything. This is just adversity.”

After the news went public last week, Brown-Shuler almost immediately began to receive overwhelming support, and not just from his family, teammates and coaches. The support has poured in from folks all over, including a quarterback who used to sport the garnet and black of the rival Gamecocks.

Former South Carolina standout Stephen Garcia, who was recently diagnosed with Stage 4 colorectal cancer himself reached out to head coach Dabo Swinney, wanting to know how he could contact Brown-Shuler. The two bonded while each were receiving treatment.

“When this broke, he reached out and wanted to connect with Hevin and so the two of them got connected,” Swinney said. “I think his first chemo day, Stephen sent me a picture wherever he was doing his chemo and (Hevin) was in his place in Greenville doing his chemo and they were kind of encouraging each other.”

“It was a funny picture. (Garcia) had some crazy hat on.”

The two football guys from rival schools bonding over something of this magnitude is another in a long list of examples of just how transcending this sport can be.

“That is what football does,” Swinney added. “I know we all compete, this and that, and you wear certain logos, but football is a family. That has been a neat thing, seeing Stephen and what he is dealing with, reaching out and encouraging Hevin, giving him some confidence.”

Garcia put together an image of the two receiving chemo. While Garcia has already been receiving treatment, it was Brown-Shuler’s first time.

“When you have chemo, you have a port or whatever,” Brown-Shuler said. “We were both showing off our ports to each other. It was a tender moment.”

Brown-Shuler committed to Clemson in April 2023 as a four-star prospect in the 2024 recruiting class according to multiple recruiting services. He was ranked as a top-150 national prospect and the country’s sixth-best defensive tackle by Rivals.

A four-time all-region and all-state honoree at Pace Academy in Atlanta, Brown-Shuler enrolled at Clemson in the summer of 2024. Due to him attending a private high school, he did not have the opportunity to enroll early. He ultimately redshirted his first season in 2024, while recording five tackles in 49 defensive snaps over four games. As a redshirt freshman in 2025, he played 57 defensive snaps and registered one tackle across three games.

After a productive spring, and with the Tigers losing several veteran defensive tackles from last year’s squad, the 6-foot-3, 315-pounder was going to have the opportunity to take a step forward this coming season. However, football will now go on the back-burner for the next year as he wages a war off the field of play.

And having people like Garcia in his corner will only make him stronger.

“Just lift each other up every day and make sure that we are in each other’s ear saying, yeah, we both got this,” Brown-Shuler said. “This isn’t anything that is going to stop us from doing what we want to do.”