Jordan Leggett’s 17-yard acrobatic reception on Clemson’s game-winning drive in the fourth quarter of this year’s National Championship Game will always go down as one of the biggest catches in Clemson history.

His catch-and-run while diving for the pylon at Florida State was huge in the Tigers’ national championship run as was his 31-yard touchdown reception to beat Louisville earlier in the season.

But where Jordan Leggett will be missed the most this coming season will not be on the practice field. It will be in the locker room.

Before the College Football Playoff, Leggett was voted by his teammates as a permanent team captain, one of the highest honors a Clemson football player can receive.

“I think when you look at that it says a lot,” Clemson tight ends coach Danny Pearman said. “The list of tight ends who have been team captains has been really good … Stanton Seckinger and all the way back to Michael Palmer. There is a lot more to these kids than just playing football.

“They realize the value of leadership and a lot of that goes unseen. When those kids get those awards by their peers, those are always the most meaningful to them.”

Granted catching 46 passes for 736 yards and seven touchdowns is always a good thing, but to Pearman, watching Leggett, or any one of his players walk across the stage and receive their degree, is what makes him the proudest as their coach.

“He has graduated. I’m really proud about that,” Pearman said. “He is a team captain … That means inside the locker room, you cannot buffalo those guys. That means you are doing it away from the coaches. Maybe it is something you say or show them, but in some form or fashion if your peers view you as a leader, then that is what is very important.”

And that is perhaps the biggest element guys like Milan Richard, Cannon Smith and Garrett Williams have to replace with Leggett exhausting his eligibility.

“I have had some really good players, going all the way back to Michael Palmer, Dwayne Allen, Brandon Ford … we have had some guys that have really stepped up and made plays for us at that position,” Pearman said. “It has been fun to create that. It has been fun to watch these guys learn, develop and grow and see the results of it.

“For the first two years, and the same thing with Dwayne (Allen), (the media) would throw him under the bus, this, that and the other. It was the same way with Leggett. Then all of a sudden, by the time they had been in the program for a few years, now they see the fruits of the kid maturing, growing up and making plays and doing well.”

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