The good news on the injury front continues to come in for Clemson.

During his weekly press conference on Tuesday, Dabo Swinney revealed that transfer DT Devarrick Woods is getting closer to being fully back.

After making his first career start in the win over North Carolina, Woods was injured and missed the road victory over Cal. He did log nine snaps in the loss to Miami, but was still extremely limited. Coming off of the bye week, the time off has been good for Woods.

“This has been big for him,” Swinney said. “We will see where he is this week. We are really going to need him down the stretch.”

With FCS foe Charleston Southern visiting Death Valley on Saturday, there is no need to rush Woods back. While it’s possible he plays against the Buccaneers, the ultimate goal is to make sure he’s fully healthy when Clemson resumes ACC play at home against Virginia Tech the following week.

However, if it were solely up to Woods, he’d be taking the field this weekend.

“I am anxious to see him (Tuesday and Wednesday),” Swinney added. “I know he wants to play. Because this is the only year he’s got. But we need him to be as close to 100% as we can as we get back into conference play. So we will see how he does (Tuesday and Wednesday). I know he wants to play, and he will be mad if he ain’t playing.”

Prior to arriving at Clemson, the 6-foot-3, 285-pounder spent two seasons at Hinds (Miss.) Community College from 2023-24 before making the jump to the FBS in 2025, compiling 16 tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack over 11 games at Texas State.

Woods has appeared in four games this season, including one start, logging 73 snaps, while registering three tackles, 0.5 tackles for loss and two quarterback pressures.

“He is a guy that has demonstrated that he can help us,” Swinney said. “He’s got some twitch, he is strong, he gets off blocks. He is a violent guy to the ball. Kind of got bad intentions in there. He has flashed. We just got to keep the continuity going. I guess he had his first start and then he was out, so that was a disappointment. But he is a guy that has moved up.”

– photo courtesy of Bart Boatwright/The Clemson Insider