Tristan Leigh has yet to make much of an impact at Clemson, which is hard to fathom considering the buzz surrounding him as a recruit a couple of years ago.

Leigh was the crowned jewel of the Tigers’ 2021 signing class, a five-star offensive tackle prospect that spurned scholarship offers from a who’s who of college football programs to play for Dabo Swinney’s. In the two years since, Leigh has played in just seven games and has yet to crack the starting lineup.

The reason has been two-pronged, though Leigh is adamant none of it had to do with the 6-foot-6, 315-pounder expecting playing time to be handed to him.

“My mentality was as soon as I get here, that stuff doesn’t matter,” Leigh said in reference to his recruiting rankings. “I’m just a new guy. I came in here with open ears, and I’m just trying to learn everything, absorb all the information from these guys and apply it to my own game. I try not to look into that because if you come out thinking that stuff matters, it won’t go well.”

Part of why Leigh has struggled to get on the field is easy to explain. Leigh has been blocked on the depth chart by one of the ACC’s top offensive lineman in Jordan McFadden, a starter at left tackle the last two years who took home the league’s Jacobs Blocking Trophy after last season. 

But Leigh hasn’t been a bigger part of the rotation up front because he simply wasn’t ready coming from the Virginia prep ranks. Leigh’s senior season at Anderson Secondary School was postponed until spring 2021 and shortened to six games in response to the coronavirus pandemic, leaving him to play catch-up once he arrived on Clemson’s campus that summer.

“Not only was he physically behind, he was mentally behind and just overwhelmed,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said last year.

Reflecting earlier this spring on his transition from high school to college, Leigh agreed with his coach.

“It’s not an excuse, but we didn’t have daily workouts at school,” Leigh said. “We kind of just had to work out on our own running outside and then playing a six-game season. I felt like it set me back physically. So coming here, I had to get right there at the same time as getting right mentally.”

Entering his redshirt sophomore season, though, Leigh is in a different place. He said the most pressing area of his body that he felt like he needed to work on was his lower-body strength, which he said he’s improved in the weight room over the last couple of years.

“I’d talk with (assistant strength) coach (Paul) Hogan almost every day and ask him, ‘What kind of extra stuff can I do?’” Leigh recalled. “Really it’s the little things that stack up and doing extra auxiliaries after the workouts. After a while, those started to stack up and I saw my numbers shoot up. And I’m still working on that.”

From a mental standpoint, Leigh is as caught up as he can be. Clemson brought in a new offensive coordinator this offseason in former TCU play caller Garrett Riley, so Leigh is at the same starting point as everyone else in learning the new scheme and terminology.

And for the first time in his college career, Leigh has real opportunity to go with it.

McFadden is preparing for next month’s NFL Draft after exhausting his eligibility after last season, leaving the starting left tackle job vacant. Leigh has gotten a majority of the first-team reps there this spring, but the competition is ongoing. Swinney said Blake Miller, who started every game at right tackle last season as a true freshman, will also get a look on the left side before any final decisions on next season’s starting five are made.

Leigh said nothing about his approach has changed – “I feel like I’ve always had a competitive mentality,” he said – but there was a specific moment last season where he said he felt like he regained his confidence with some help from his teammates. McFadden’s primary backup last season, Leigh took over late in the Tigers’ November rout of Miami.

“I felt really good out there,” he said. “I remember coming in, and J-Mac told me before (I went in), ‘You’ve worked for this and you’re ready.’ It really helped me having those guys believe in me, and I feel like I executed really well. I feel like that confidence carried me on the rest of the season where I felt like I’d be ready if called upon.”

Leigh’s number could be called in a far more significant way come the fall. Swinney said his former prized recruit is a totally different player than he was his first two years in the program, which is allowing Leigh to put his best foot forward in trying to earn a starting job.

“There were times you wish you were out there and everything, but I trusted my coaches and trusted myself that when that time comes, I’ll be ready,” Leigh said.

Dear Old Clemson has added the Tiger Sack Pack to our online store.  Save by getting the Two Pack of signed cards from two of the nation’s top defensive ends, Myles Murphy and Xavier Thomas.

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