CLEMSON – Passion has never been a weakness for Clemson’s Ronan Hanafin.

The rising senior’s competitive nature shone after he recorded his first interception against Troy, sprinting back down the field afterwards with outstretched arms.

It showed every time he smacked the helmet of a teammate after a big tackle-for-loss, when he screamed in joy after a touchdown thrown by his roommate, former quarterback Cade Klubnik. 

That competitive spirit and toughness, he says, comes in part from how he was raised.

“(My family) did this thing we called Hurricane Drills,” Hanafin said. “Coming from the other room, you got to the other room and just tackled them as hard as you can and he would rate us on the hurricane scale one through five. It all kind of started there.”

The “Hurricane” mindset was formed through countless games of yard football, shoveling snow, and wrestling.

Hanafin grew up in Burlington, Mass., alongside four brothers, and a father who was the starting quarterback at Boston College in 1997. For Hanafin, growing up resilient was a requirement, and it transferred over in his time at Clemson, especially when he made a position change from wide receiver to defensive back in 2024.

Just over a year after making the switch, Hanafin made five starts at safety in Clemson’s 2025 campaign, finishing with two forced fumbles, four pass breakups, and 59 total tackles.

“I like to say I play physical,” Hanafin said. “I think I play fast, and just being able to have the knowledge now, having a full off-season, being at safety for that long now, has really helped me speed up my game from a mental standpoint.”

Despite flashes of excellence from Hanafin, like when he recorded a team-high 12 tackles in the Tigers’ season-opener against LSU and forced a fumble at rival South Carolina in late November, the converted safety still showed significant room for improvement, as did the rest of the Tigers’ secondary.

Clemson finished 11th in pass defense in the ACC after a disastrous 7-6 season, in what Swinney called “the worst pass defense” he had coached in his time at the helm of the program. Unlike Hanafin’s personality, the Tigers were rarely tough.

After the disappointing year, Hanafin got to put his resiliency to the test, bouncing back as a senior leader for underclassmen and the 10 new defensive transfers brought in by Clemson’s staff.

With a year of learning defensive coordinator Tom Allen’s defense, he is determined not to repeat the mental mistakes of last season.

Again, he said, it all comes down to toughness – physically and mentally.

“We went out there (last season) and we lost the first one,” Hanafin said. “I feel like we kind of just let that get us down and instead of just, next play mentality, we kind of just had that in the back of our heads. But, this coming year, we got to move on to the next play. Have a next play mentality and not let the past, where we messed up last week affect us for this coming week.”

According to Allen, Hanafin has taken clear steps to pair his play on the field with the tenacity and passion that Clemson fans came to expect last season.

“I’d say, I’m so encouraged by his confidence that he brought with him from laying such a great foundation,” Allen said. “Obviously, growing through some mistakes and learning a new system, learning a new position, learning how to play defense at a high level.”

Now, alongside transfers Corey Myrick and Jerome Carter III, Hanafin has stood out to Allen as one of the leaders on Clemson’s defense. Now, with the help of the two additions, Allen feels much better about the state of his secondary.

“At this point, right now, those three guys, are top three,” he said. “They’re all got length, they all can run, and they’re all physical.”

That physicality, along with Hanafin’s hard-nosed style and experience with Power Four opponents, will be crucial as Clemson will open its season at LSU in the second installment of a home-and-home series on Sept. 5 in Baton Rouge, La.