Kylen Webb

Webb arrived in 2023 as a four-star athlete, the No. 23 ATH in his class out of Riverview, Florida — exactly the kind of toolsy ball-hawk Clemson stockpiles and develops. Four years later, the resume reads five tackles on 25 career snaps. He's not been beaten out by one player; he's been outwaited by a position group that kept refusing to thin. This winter it finally did: the secondary that struggled in pass defense lost nearly everyone with experience, and the offseason chatter framed safety as Clemson's most open competition.

Then Swinney, the sport's most stubborn portal holdout, blinked. Clemson reeled in Old Dominion's Jerome Carter III — tied for second in the FBS with six interceptions in 2025 — and Southern Miss's Corey Myrick, a 91-tackle producer, both branded by local writers as plug-and-play starters. Spring depth-chart projections slotted the transfers and returning starter Ronan Hanafin ahead; Webb's name didn't surface in the post-spring starter talk. The blue-chip pedigree is the perception; 25 snaps is the production, and the gap between them is the whole story.

Webb already crossed the graduation stage in May, which under the new eligibility model keeps the door cracked rather than closed. But it's cracked, not open. The boards aren't debating whether he starts — they're wondering if a former top-25 athlete who's never gotten on the field gets so much as a special-teams role before his Clemson time runs out. 2026 is the answer, one way or the other.