Clemson came into the season with a lot of question marks at defensive tackle.

The Tigers hit the transfer portal hard at that position during the offseason, adding Kourtney Kelly, Markus Strong, Andy Burburija and Devarrick Woods. However, those moves haven’t been quite as impactful as they could have been, seeing as Kelly went down in the spring with a torn ACL and Strong was lost for the year in the season-opening loss to LSU. Woods has also missed some time with an injury. It has gotten to the point where the staff had to move Darien Mayo inside to tackle.

Mayo’s move inside was met with skepticism by some, but two games into the experiment, it looks like it might be the right move. Mayo has started each of the past two games.

With all of the injuries, others have had to step up, and one of the biggest surprises to this point just might be Champ Thompson. During fall camp, Thompson was fighting just to be a part of the rotation, and last week, he made his second career start against Miami. The 6-foot-3, 290-pounder had a solid performance against the ‘Canes and certainly looks to be on the upswing.

Burburija might have also turned in his best performance of the season coming off the bench against Miami. While it certainly wasn’t perfect, Mayo, Thompson and Burburija held up fairly well against Miami.

“I think we are a tougher, more physical football team,” head coach Dabo Swinney said after the loss to Miami. “I just think we have made some improvement there.

“I saw some toughness. I saw some physicality. There are some things that didn’t show up on the stat sheet that we can build on.”

Now there is possibly some good news on the horizon. Assuming there are no setbacks, it appears Kelly might be on track to make his debut against Charleston Southern following the open date. Without the injury, Kelly might very well have been one of the starters on the interior.

“On a good note, we anticipate hopefully getting Kourtney Kelly back, maybe for Charleston Southern,” Swinney said. “So, we’ll just have to see. We’ll have to see how he responds. So, he’ll get his first live work this week and next week. If everything goes well with the doctors, there’s a chance he might be able to play in that game.”

With Amare Adams still struggling with consistency and Vic Burley only playing minimal snaps since returning from his suspension, this group could use a boost, and Kelly would certainly provide that.

Kelly transferred in from West Georgia, where he registered 17 tackles, seven tackles for loss, four sacks and a fumble recovery last season.

Adding him to a group that is already showing signs of improvement might prove to be exactly what the interior of the Tigers’ defensive line needs.