CLEMSON – Jarvis Green celebrated much more than holidays in the winter of 2022.

On December 3 of that year, the running back led Dutch Fork high school to its sixth South Carolina State Championship win in seven years, amassing 243 rushing yards and three touchdowns on the ground and another through the air in the 47-10 victory.

With his dominance, Green was promptly named the outright Player of the Game, an award he also won in 2020 as a sophomore, splitting the honors with quarterback Will Taylor, who went on to play football and baseball at Clemson.

Five days after earning those two trophies in 2022, Green got a long awaited call from Clemson, just two hours up the road from his hometown of Irmo, S.C. 

A familiar voice came over the phone.

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney wanted Green to come play running back for Clemson.

After years of waiting, this was the call Green had been hoping for since he was a boy cheering for Clemson every Saturday despite having two parents who graduated from the University of South Carolina.

“It was a slow process for me, coming from a powerhouse in Dutch Fork,” Green said. “Just being able to showcase my talents and then Coach Swinney giving me that call a week before signing day telling me he wanted to offer me, it was a dream come true.”

Before Christmas, Green committed to and signed with the Tigers, decommitting from James Madison University. January did not provide much of a respite from the hoopla. However, as Green started playing point guard for Dutch Fork’s basketball team and was awarded football Gatorade Player of the Year honors in the State of South Carolina.

From an accolades standpoint, things slowed down for Green when he got to Clemson, joining the Tigers in the summer of 2023. Green redshirted his freshman year, and saw limited action as a returner and back against non-Power Four opponents.

In his second season with the Tigers, though, he started to build some momentum, rushing nine times for 53 yards across nine games. Fittingly, as a high school back that also had 89 receptions and 11 touchdowns through the air, Green’s biggest moment of the 2024 season came when he caught a 25-yard touchdown pass in Clemson’s College Football Playoff game at Texas.

“The Texas game, I remember we were installing that play, and Coach (Garrett) Riley was like ‘You’re gonna score.’” Green said. “I didn’t really think I was going to score until we were running that wheel route and the linebacker said ‘Oh shoot,’ so I knew it was going to be open for a touchdown. Everything was slow motion from that point. Once I caught the ball I was just in the moment, celebrating with my teammates.”

On paper, that moment should have catalyzed momentum for Green. After all, starting running back Phil Mafah was about to exhaust his eligibility and leave the Tigers with a gap to fill, or at least needed depth at the position.

This was the opportunity Green had been dreaming about since his days at Dutch Fork, cheering for the Tigers against his parents’ wishes every Saturday after Thanksgiving. However, a serious offseason foot injury slashed those hopes quickly and sidelined Green for the entirety of the Tigers’ 2025 campaign.

“He’s going to probably be out most of the year,” Swinney said in August of 2025. “We had to do surgery on his foot, so he’ll have a chance to come back at the end of the season. I hate that for him. I really do.”

Throughout the recovery process, Green leaned on his faith, teammates and encouraging words as he went into physical therapy every day, alongside fellow back Jay Haynes who was still recovering from a 2024 ACL tear.

Slowly and surely, Green improved. He started cutting and catching. He started to regain trust in his once-injured foot and abilities. He started to crave competition.

It all came to a head last Saturday, when the 5-foot-9 ball-carrier got his first snaps since the Texas game against LSU in Tiger Stadium. Though his Tigers suffered a blowout 51-10 loss, Green led his team on their only touchdown-scoring drive of the night in the fourth quarter – rushing four times for 21 yards. He led all Clemson rushers.

“That LSU game gave me a mindset of ‘I can still do this, I can still play at this level,’” Green said. “Whenever my number is called, I’ll be the one to go out there and produce.”

Now, Green and the Tigers have a chance to bounce back this weekend as Clemson will host Georgia Southern in its home opener at Memorial Stadium this Saturday. As a South Carolina native who has not played a game in Clemson’s Death Valley since a loss to the Gamecocks in 2024, this contest will carry even a little more weight.

“I feel like I’m playing with a chip on my shoulder just because I’ve been hurt for most of my years here,” he said. “Being a kid from Irmo, South Carolina, growing up to play in Clemson and wear that paw. I feel like I have a little chip on my shoulder just to give back to this college.”

The Tigers and Eagles will kickoff at 7:30 p.m., on Saturday, but not before Green gets the chance to run down the hill healthily for the first time in 22 months.