CLEMSON – Elyjah Thurmon was poised to take on a big role for Clemson’s offensive line last season. A shoulder that kept slipping out of place killed his chances.

Thurmon, who primarily played guard for the Tigers his freshman and sophomore seasons, suffered a season-ending injury his freshman season after making his first start against Pittsburgh. Six months later, a healthy Thurmon was ready to step into a utility role for the Tigers’ veteran line.

“We got a ton of confidence in Elyjah. This kid is a special talent,” head coach Dabo Swinney said last August. “There’s not many teams that have a blessing like that, where you got a guy that could literally start four positions for you and play at an elite level. And we think he can do that.”

Weeks later, Thurmon saw 129 offensive snaps across three games, and made his second career start against Troy, as Clemson produced both a 100-yard rusher and 100-yard receiver. He missed a loss to Georgia Tech with an injury, but came back for a season-high 50 snaps against Syracuse.

After a loss to the Orange, Thurmon never saw the field again in 2025.

His shoulder, separate from the injury that kept him out of play one season earlier, would not stay in place. As a result, surgery and a weakened offensive line were inevitable for Thurmon and the Tigers.

“We didn’t want to shut (Thurmon) down, but it’s mother nature. He’s gotta have surgery,” Swinney said on Nov 3. “They were hoping that maybe he could come back, but it keeps slipping out. They tried to go through the protocol to get him back to play, but he can’t do what he needs to do. We didn’t want to. It’s just where we are.”

Four months later, during Clemson’s spring practice ahead of the 2026 season, the Rienzi, Miss., native shared some perspective on his time away.

“I mean, everybody knows coming back from injury is a valley trying to get back,” Thurmon said in late March. “There’s always ups, there’s always downs, but I’m always striving to just make sure I get better every single day so I can be out there back 100%. But right now, I feel amazing.”

While he is still working to get back into playing shape, focusing on endurance and strength, Thurmon has also had to build his mental capacity to handle the adversity of his first two years of college football, especially after finishing as a highly-ranked prospect out of high school. 

Now, he has a little extra reason to be grateful for each grueling practice.

“I had to relearn, to rebuild my mental toughness to come back,” he said. “My freshman year I had ankle surgery when I broke my ankle and then coming back last year messing up my shoulder and being out the whole year and it just at first I was down on myself a little bit just thinking maybe

how would I recover but ever since during rehab and everything just rebuild my mental toughness and just getting that back up again, keeping my spirit high at all times.”

Quickly, Thurmon made his mark on Clemson coaches in the spring. As a “true five-position guy” according to Swinney, the rising redshirt junior started his spring “ramping up” in a non-contact green jersey at practice, and immediately caught the eye of new offensive coordinator Chad Morris.

“I’ve been really pleased with him. This has been a really good week for him,” Morris said of Thurmon. “We’ve been able to move him around the offensive line. I mean, he’s that guy who can play all the positions.”

Despite being only a rising redshirt sophomore, Thurmon is now one of the most tenured players on Clemson’s offensive line, after players like Blake Miller and Tristan Leigh exited this offseason.

Though it is “surreal” to the 6-foot-4, 325-pound lineman, he will now be working not only to regain his health, but to lead others in his room ahead of the 2026 season, as almost all of the Tigers’ projected starters in his room will be underclassmen.

“Just yesterday I was in their same shoes, coming in, being a young guy, and now it’s like I’m the guy that they look up to like how I looked up to some of the older guys that were here when I first got here,” Thurmon said. “It’s a surreal feeling, but it’s a good feeling to know that you got a group of young guys that come in that look up to you and ask you for guidance and to help them lead the way and whatnot.”

Thurmon still has a road of recovery ahead to be in his best shape and health for the Tigers’ season-opener against LSU on Sept 5, and Clemson’s offensive line still has lots of extensive work ahead to patch the absences of veterans from last year.

Still, Tiger fans can expect to see a healthy Thurmon in 2026.