CLEMSON – There’s something reverent about a crowd dressed in their Sunday best, humming along to a familiar fight song, and joined by the familiar task of slinging cheers and grievances at a college football game.

And while the church of football turns regular fans into a congregation and ingrains ordinary players into sacred lore, it also mirrors a familiar sacrament for unassuming freshmen, according to Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney.

“It’s been a Billy Graham revival, a bunch of baptisms on the field daily,” Swinney said after Clemson’s Orange & White Spring Game Saturday.

The ‘baptisms,’ Swinney said, come from the figurative deaths and rebirths freshman wide receivers face every day while going against veteran defensive backs in spring practice. Just months after concluding their high school careers, wideout trio Gordon Sellars III, Connor Salmin, and Naeem Burroughs have been taught the doctrine of getting back up– literally.

“(Junior Cornerback) Ashton Hampton just beat (the freshmen) up,” Swinney said. “Just feel sorry for them. I mean, just bless their heart,” the veteran leader added with a laugh.

With immediate exposure to Hampton, a former freshman All-American defender, Swinney believes that the underclassmen group has learned some hard gospel truths. Namely, that they can no longer rely on the sheer talent they utilized to bully lesser competition at the high school level.

“That’s the only way you’re gonna get better, because these guys are elite, elite talented wideouts and they’ve never had a peer,” Swinney said. “Ain’t nobody walked up to them on Friday night and said, ‘All right, dog. Me and you all night.’ That didn’t happen. So, they’ve never really had to play with their hands at that position. They’ve never really had to play with their feet. They’re just faster and better.”

In high school, Sellars III won three state titles in North Carolina, recording 2,419 receiving yards and 29 touchdowns on 133 career receptions. Salmin, a few states away, notched over 1,000 yards and 14 touchdowns as a senior in Virginia, and Burroughs recorded over 4,000 career receiving yards in Florida en route to being named a consensus four-star prospect.

While the group is far from notching those same staggering numbers at the collegiate level, Swinney believes that the immediate immersion in practice will benefit their long-term careers with the Tigers.

“As we went through the spring, all those guys got better, he said.

“It’s been eye-opening for them but they’ve responded and they’re going to be, and they got

better and you saw them make some plays today,” he added.

Sellars III, in particular, made some big plays in his first appearance at Memorial Stadium– one of college football’s most famous cathedrals.

The Charlotte, N.C., native reeled in three catches for 34 yards and one touchdown for the Orange team, leading all receivers on either side except senior Tyler Brown, who notched 47 yards on five catches. Sellars’ first catch came off of a 10-yard pass from quarterback Christopher Vizzina in the first quarter, and his scoring reception came minutes later to open the second period.

As the rookie reeled in his first touchdown in front of the Clemson faithful, he received a full-scale ovation from Tiger parishioners. With the back-shoulder catch in the end zone, the Orange team took a 7-3 lead that was never again in jeopardy.

“What a great catch Gordo made, what an amazing catch he made,” Swinney said. “And then he had two other plays he should make.

“So, he’s got to be consistent,” he continued. “But of the three, he probably was the most consistent. I just think he was a little further ahead technique-wise and really understanding some of the principles and release technique and stuff like that.”

In addition to Sellars’ stellar day, Burroughs added three catches for 28 yards, including an eight-yard gain for a first down from Vizzina to extend an early drive for the Orange. The Jacksonville, Fla., native also fair caught for the Tigers. Salmin added one catch off of a  pass from signal-caller Chris Denson for the white team, but Orange’s defense turned it into a negative play. 

“Salmin got better,” Swinney said. “He made a couple really big plays in practice the other day. Had a touchdown. He got better. He can really really run, but he don’t play fast all the time because he’s got a lot going on. This guy can fly. And then Burroughs, he’s just a very natural, smooth athlete. And he made a couple plays today out there. The game’s kind of slowed down.”

Through a sanctification process, Clemson’s newest wide receiver core has faced immense adversity in the last several weeks– from learning a new offense to being “knocked into row 10” of Death Valley during a scrimmage.

Now, after a whirlwind of information and some fresh bruises, the group has time to work on their own, as the Tigers conclude spring practice after Monday’s training session. After a break, and maybe a deep breath, it is again time for the freshman phenoms to look ahead.

“I promise you they’re all going, ‘Thank God that’s over,’ because now they know what they’ve got to do,” Swinney said. “And I promise you, they’ll be different when they show up in August because all the skills and drills, all the work, now they know what it looks like.”

Clemson’s congregation will have to fast from football for a few months, but can expect to see the freshmen wide receivers fully through the baptism process on September 5, when the Tigers will open their season at Tiger Stadium against LSU.