By Will Vandervort.

By Will Vandervort

While some of his football teammates spent spring break sharping up their skills in California or maybe catching some rays while sun bathing on the beaches of Florida, Clemson defensive tackle D.J. Reader was putting on his baseball uniform and cleats and hitting the ballfield at Doug Kingsmore Stadium where the baseball Tigers went 4-1 this past week.

“I like being here. We are playing well,” Reader said following Saturday’s doubleheader against Duke. “I just wanted to be with my teammates. I play baseball now so I was not really concerned about what everyone else (from football) was doing.”

What Reader did on Saturday was get his second at-bat of the season. And though he struck out like he did in his first at-bat, the 6-foot-3, 335-pound freshman appreciates the opportunity he is getting on Jack Leggett’s baseball team.

“They kid me a little bit, but I like them and they like me so I seem to fit in,” he said.

Being on the baseball team during spring break, and for the rest of the spring after football, is helping Reader become a better football player as well.

“It helps me a lot actually,” he said. “I have cut a lot of weight. I have cut about fourteen pounds. Being here and working in the weight room and working on my hips and a lot of other stuff, I feel like I have become a better athlete.”

But do not think Reader is not focused on football. He has participated in four of the Tigers’ five practices thus far and he plans to be at most of the last 10 Clemson has left. He says the team has been looking good so far, especially at the defensive tackle positions.

Reader, along with Josh Watson, DeShawn Williams, Grady Jarrett, Carlos Watkins and Roderick Byers have all been working hard with position coach Dan Brooks to be even better this coming fall.

“It is looking like a few more guys might get in there,” he said. “It is looking like we will have a really good rotation and we will get fresh legs in there all the time and not really have a drop off between players.

“It has been good.”

It started to get better last year. By the end of the season, Clemson’s young defensive line improved as the season went along and Reader played a big role as to why. The freshman recorded 40 tackles in 236 snaps, including seven tackles against Virginia Tech and three against LSU in only seven snaps in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

Now that he has dropped a few pounds and is a little more athletic, Reader says spring practice has been going pretty could so far. At first he was worried about how much he might retain from Brent Venables scheme, but that has not been an issue.

“I’m really comfortable, especially after the first day I went out there for spring practice,” the Greensboro, NC native said. “I thought maybe I would have some refreshing to do on some plays, but it felt like it just snapped right back in there so I have been feeling really comfortable out there.”

Getting a week to concentrate only on baseball has been a nice break for Reader, who is also balancing a full workload in the classroom between the two sports.

“It has been hard, especially with school, but it is about time management and I have been doing a pretty decent job of it,” he said.

When spring practice starts back today, Reader will turn his attention back to football where he says he is looking forward to the spring game. Once spring practice has concluded, he will rejoin his baseball teammates for what he hopes will be a nice run in the postseason.

“I think we are going to really be good later in the year,” he said. “I think we are pretty good right now, and I think we are going to keep making strides.”

Just like Reader is doing in both sports.