A graduate senior defensive lineman has stepped away from the Clemson football program.

On Monday night, The Clemson Insider confirmed that defensive end Greg Williams stepped away from the football program last month.

However, according to a Clemson spokesman, the Swansea native did not enter the transfer portal prior to the May deadline.

In 19 career games as a Tiger, the 6-foot-3, 270-pound pass rusher recorded 18 tackles, 2.0 tackles for loss, a sack and a pass breakup in 168 snaps.

A fifth-year player, Williams stuck it out at Clemson for quite some time but was buried on the depth chart. At the Prowl & Growl event in Columbia in April, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney spoke about Williams’ future, saying that he hoped Williams would stay with the team in a reserve role again in 2023.

“I’m proud of him,” Swinney said. “He’s graduated, he’s got his degree. He’s probably one of those guys that probably has to assess what he really wants to do moving forward, does he want to keep playing and so forth, because he’s a graduate and things have changed a little bit. If you had told me this time last year that (defensive ends) Xavier Thomas and (Justin) Mascoll were gonna be back, I don’t think any of us expected that. But that’s just kind of how it’s worked out.

“But man, Greg is a guy I’m really, really proud of because he’s a great teammate, he’s incredibly smart and he’s really, really progressed developmentally in what he needed to do to get better. So, hopefully he’ll stay and be a good player for us this year – probably in a backup role, but valuable member to our team. But I’m really proud of him for all that he’s accomplished, and most of all, being a graduate.”

We are excited to announce our second annual Dear Old Clemson event for the freshmen football class.  Come out on July 22 at 10 AM at the indoor football facility for a meet and greet autograph session with the scholarship freshmen from the 2023 class.  Clemson coordinators Garrett Riley and Wes Goodwin will be attendance and speak at the event.

Get your tickets today at Dear Old Clemson.