CLEMSON – When defensive end Will Heldt announced his commitment to Clemson out of the transfer portal in December of 2024, it sent waves across the college football landscape.

The edge rusher out of Purdue Univerity was the first defensive player head coach Dabo Swinney and his staff signed out of the transfer portal, and one of only three total portal players that cycle.

After two stellar seasons at Purdue, it made sense why Swinney wanted the disruptive Carmel, Ind., native in the orange and purple. 

In his first two college football seasons, Heldt notched 56 tackles (10 for loss), five sacks, and a fumble recovery he returned for a touchdown across 24 games. He notched five combined tackles for loss against three top-25 opponents down the stretch his sophomore season.

Despite his impressive rookie and sophomore campaigns, the Boilermakers went 1-11 in 2024, and head coach Ryan Walters was fired after the season. Heldt, “starving for wins,” as he said in a 2025 interview, decided to make the move to Clemson after defensive ends coach Chris Rumph Swinney paid him an unexpected Facetime call.

“I think just looking at the track record of this program and Coach Swinney, it speaks for itself,” Heldt said. “The guy wins championships. It’s what he does.” 

Ahead of his first year at Clemson, Heldt was named the Athletic’s No. 43 most impactful transfer, as he could assist junior defensive end T.J. Parker in mauling offensive lines. But after the season, it turned out that his impact on Clemson’s overall defense was more meaningful than any preseason metric.

Across 13 starts and 583 snaps his junior season with the Tigers, Heldt recorded 45 tackles, (15.5 for loss), and 7.5 sacks. He became one of just 14 players nationally– along with Clemson linebacker Sammy Brown– to tally over 10 tackles for loss and five-plus sacks in both the 2024 and 2025 seasons. 

The six-foot-six edge was awarded third team All-ACC honors at the conclusion of the season, after posting three tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, a pass breakup, and 12 total tackles across the last two games of Clemson’s season. 

“He’s a great player,” Swinney said of Heldt. “He’s bought in. He’s really been a great fit for us. He’s about his business.

“I mean, like, if this is what’s required,” Swinney said, pointing at shoulder length, “he’s always up here,” Swinney said, pointing above his head. “It’s just who he is, every day.”

Heldt, dubbed “the robot,” by fellow defensive lineman Peter Woods, will have a chance to take his role as a leader for the Tigers to the next level in the 2026 season, after Woods, Parker, and several defensive linemen have moved on from their time at the program.

Last season, in defensive coordinator Tom Allen’s 4-2-5 scheme, Heldt often lined up parallel to Parker, a 2024 second team All-American honoree. With offenses worried about containing Parker and Woods– who are now both expected to be high-level NFL Draft picks– Heldt had room to play freely and hunt mismatches on the outside.

Now, with veterans gone, Heldt will serve as the target to shut down on Clemson’s defensive line, along with edge Jaheim Lawson, who is recovering from a tightrope procedure on his ankle. The defensive line will also feature a younger core of ends in Ari Watford and Darien Mayo. 

Additionally, four of Clemson’s 10 incoming transfers are also defensive linemen, and two are defensive ends. C.J Wesley, a transfer from Howard University, and London Merritt out of Colorado will join Heldt and Lawson’s position group.

With the new transfers and younger players learning Allen’s scheme for the first time and competing for snaps under the lights in Memorial Stadium this fall, Heldt has a chance to become the outright leader of the group statistically and in the locker room.

He will no longer be a complement to Parker, feeding off of matchups schemed for the opposite edge. Instead, the rising senior has a chance to increase his own sack and tackle numbers as the dominant force on the line and increase his stock ahead of the 2027 Draft. 

Heldt also has a leg up, as he has already spent a year with Allen and Rumph. He has had a year to grasp new schemes, and proved that his ability to swallow up offensive lines transfers to ACC competition.

Spring practice, which starts Wednesday, will be Heldt’s first chance to practice alongside the veteran transfers and younger players on the Tigers’ 2026 roster. Clemson fans can get their first look at Heldt and the new-look defensive line in the Annual Orange and White Spring Game, held at Memorial Stadium on March 28.