CLEMSON – When almost half of Clemson’s new transfers run down the hill and take the field at Memorial Stadium this fall, they will look up to at least 45,000 more cheering fans than they saw at any of their previous home games.

These four defensive players– along with lineman Kourtney Kelly, who tore his ACL and will not play in 2026– came from non-Power Four schools, and will be playing in front of over 80,000 supportive cheers for the first time in their careers next season.

While the differences have been stark for Clemson’s two newest safeties and a pair of linemen, requiring a transitional period this spring, playing at the Power Four level has been a dream for each athlete.

“I always wanted to play at a P5 level,” safety Jerome Carter III said in March. “Sometimes things don’t go your way, and you just got to work your way up. That’s what I did.”

Carter played two seasons at Old Dominion University before joining the Tigers, notching 98 total tackles, six interceptions, and three pass breakups in 12 starts. Fellow defensive back Corey Myrick, who Carter convinced to sign with the Tigers in January, echoed the longstanding dream after a spring practice.

“I say out of high school that’s everybody’s dream, going Power Five,” the Southern Miss transfer said. “So, just knowing that, to keep my head down, keep working no matter what. Going G5 first and just hopefully I can be there one day.”

After posting 95 tackles, four pass breakups and two interceptions last season, that dream became a reality when he signed with Clemson on Jan 7.

Over six months before Myrick, Carter, and linemen C.J. Wesley and Devarrick Woods will have their first experience of playing in a packed Death Valley, they got a smaller shock, walking into Clemson’s weight room, part of the 55-million dollar Allen N. Reeves Football Facility in January.

“It was crazy,” said Wesley, a Howard University transfer, on his first time in the Tigers’ weight room. “The little jumbotron in the back and stuff, I’ve never seen anything like that. All those racks, just different equipment, things in the back. It was crazy. I couldn’t believe it. I had to take a lot of pictures and videos.”

Carter said that in addition to the weight room, he has taken advantage of the personal training,  cold tubs, and red light therapy offered in Clemson’s “100 Yards of Wellness, while Wesley was focused on having access to a private bistro, after eating in public dining halls in his last four seasons.

The discrepancies in the resources offered at Clemson were obvious for the transfers. But it was not until spring practice that they got to see potentially the biggest difference– an upgrade in competition.

 “Probably O-line, D-line, that’s a real big difference from G5 and P5 level,” Myrick said. “Other than that I can really say just speed. Honestly just being able to adjust to the speed at the P5 level. Being able to play faster and just learning things quicker.”

Carter expanded on the sentiment a few minutes later.

 “Just the size and a little bit of speed difference,” Carter said, when asked the biggest changes at Clemson. “It’s a lot faster sometimes and then like I would say the biggest is the lineman like O-line to D-line. They’re much bigger, stronger and faster.”

Despite going up against bigger and stronger competition, adjusting to new school and training routines, and making initial bonds with new teammates, defensive coordinator Tom Allen believes the former Group of Five players fit right in. 

They might even be better than players who went to Power Four schools straight from high school, according to the second year Tigers’ coach.

“It kind of wakes up the guys in that locker room,” Allen said. “Sometimes you think ‘I’m gonna be the next guy because of time.’ You know what? That just changed.”

“Just the length and speed of those new guys is noticeable, and I think just the fact that they’re experienced,” he continued. “They all bring quality reps, for the most part, and a lot of confidence. So, I just think that things we were trying to go address, and yeah, it’s very apparent.”

Allen and his handful of transfers still have almost four months until they will play in front of their first orange-and-purple crowd, but when the time comes, there will no longer be any transfer players– no “G5” talents or culture shocks after several months of practice. 

When Clemson opens its season against LSU on Sept 5, there will just be Tigers.