CLEMSON – When head coach Dabo Swinney takes the podium at the Smart Family Media Center to give his weekly press conferences, it often feels like he doles out messages– subliminal and literal– meant for different audiences.

Sometimes, he speaks to fans, encouraging them to pack Memorial Stadium, or to “stick with us,” after a loss. Other times, his fiery comments seem intended for media-credentialed critics, or coaches unwilling to speak up about the current college football landscape. 

While these quotes from Swinney come in all shapes and sizes– veiled and outright, joking and serious– there was no question who his intended audience was in a spring practice media outing on March 4.

His comments were made for defensive tackle Vic Burley to hear.

“(Burley) has been a guy that has been okay with being a backup,” Swinney said. “He has to make up his mind that he is going to be a wrecking ball in there because he can do it.”

Swinney’s charge to the rising redshirt junior came after three years of limited production from the former five-star recruit. Burley missed his entire freshman year in 2023 with knee injuries, and recorded just 0.5 tackles for loss in his next two seasons, making his first start in a Pinstripe Bowl loss to Penn State last December.

“He has to show up to play with a bad attitude,” Swinney said. “Be ready to be the guy and compete to be the guy.”

The former high-school All-American was credited with 15 tackles, the team’s 18th-most, in 2025, improved from nine tackles in 92 snaps the year prior.

While T.J. Parker and Peter Woods, two fellow defensive linemen from the 2023 class, will soon make their way into their first NFL training camps, Burley faces a bifurcation– step up or be passed over.

It’s safe to say the Warner Robins, Ga., native got his coach’s message loud and clear.

“It was definitely more of like, ah, like maybe (Swinney) don’t see me as the man,” Burley said in the spring. “So that kind of still pushes me to be the best version of me.” 

That “push” seemed to translate in the Orange & White Spring Game on March 28, when Burley tied a team-high of 2.5 tackles for loss with transfer London Merritt, and posted three tackles to help his Orange team to a decisive 23-3 victory.

It is important to note, however, that tackles for loss are counted much more generously in a spring scrimmage than they would be in a regular game, and sacks are granted with nearly any contact with a quarterback.

Still, Burley believes his performance will translate to a full-speed game– at least in time.

“Obviously, we can’t take the quarterback down, but as long as I got there, we are going to continue working on it,” he said. “And when it gets to the season, where I can actually hit the quarterback, it’s going to get done.”

Though a shortened scrimmage against younger teammates does not exactly replicate what the Tigers’ starters will face when they play Power Four competition this season, Swinney still made  note of what he saw in Burley’s rumbles.

“Yeah, saw him a couple times today,” Swinney said. “He showed up a couple times today. He’s a guy we’re counting on. If he doesn’t do it, it ain’t nobody’s fault but his.”

With transfer Kourtney Kelly sidelined for the 2026 season with a torn ACL, Burley enters summer and fall practices as the most tenured tackle on Clemson’s defensive line. Though his growth may not have been spotlighted in his first two years on the field, he believes that countless hours behind the scenes will help him step into the leadership Swinney desires for him.

“What I take away (from the spring) is, it’s just my opportunity to shine,” he said. “Just like Coach Swinney said, ‘I’ve been in the crock pot for a while, been cooking up.’ So, I took the spring and I got to show the world that I’m Vic Burley.”

If Burley continues on the track he was on in the spring game and earns a starting role next season, he will immediately be put to the test– more so than he was in front of familiar fans at Memorial Stadium this past spring.

If he “decides” to be a wrecking ball, as Swinney put it, Burley’s second career start would come on Sept. 5, when Clemson will head to Baton Rouge, La., to take on the LSU Tigers in the season-opener.

Though Burley will be the only Tiger defensive tackle that got snaps against LSU last season, he will need to take a step up. Swinney was thinking about Clemson’s first defensive snaps of 2026 when he challenged Burley from the podium.