CLEMSON — Darien Mayo quietly had himself a very solid spring, then capped it off with an impressive performance in the spring game.

Mayo logged 33 snaps, registering four tackles and 0.5 tackles for loss, while redshirting last season. If he continues to progress, he could be a candidate to see more action in his second season with the Tigers.

“I am proud of him,” defensive ends coach Chris Rumph said at Clemson’s annual media outing on Tuesday. “He has some stiffness; he had some things we asked him to work on, and this offseason, he did it. When he came back in the spring, he was a different guy.”

Standing 6-foot-7 and weighing in the neighborhood of 270 pounds, Mayo is not your typical end. He’s taller than most at the position, meaning he’s placing a lot of emphasis on playing with leverage.

“Always going to be an issue,” Rumph added. “He has to get to a point where not to think about playing with leverage, but that he is playing with leverage. Because is he is thinking about playing with leverage, he is not thinking about the job at hand, or the job at hand has become the second thing when it should be number one.”

“He is a big dude. You don’t realize how big he is. From a distance, you say, yeah, that is a big dude, but when he walks up on you, you feel it.”

Mayo was a four-star talent coming out of high school, with multiple services ranking him inside of the Top 150 overall.

He racked up seven tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack in the spring game, showing a lot of growth since his debut season, something Rumph is hoping to see more of once fall camp gets underway.

“He was playing with his length, and he is strong. He is really strong,” Rumph added. “He is starting to settle down at his position and feel confident about what he is doing. He still doesn’t know the defense, that is an area he has to grow, but man, the ceiling is high for this guy if he continues to grow.”