Clemson Adds Track and Field Standout to Offensive Line

Last year, it was Clemson basketball's Ian Schieffelin. This season, head coach Dabo Swinney has another player with a different program making the switch to football.

Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney yells downfield Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, during the NCAA football game against the Duke Blue Devils at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina. | Alex Martin/Greenville News / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Clemson football’s newest recruit, Carlito Jones, is 6-foot-8, 270 pounds and ready to immediately bolster Dabo Swinney’s offensive line. 

But this was not your usual recruitment process: Jones came from within. 

Jones’ Clemson football bio page reveals that the redshirt junior walked onto the football team in the 2026 offseason, and now will be seeing his first action as Clemson’s spring campaign gets underway this week. 

Formerly with Clemson track and field, Jones was a weight and hammer thrower for two years — and a pretty good one, too. 

In his two seasons with the Tigers, Jones recorded five top-10 finishes in various throwing events, headlined by a second place weight throw in the 2025 Clemson Invitational (18.76 meters) and a personal-best 53.82-meter hammer throw in the 2024 ACC Outdoor Track & Field Championship.

A local kid, Jones grew up in Anderson, South Carolina, attending Pendleton High School before shifting his tenure to Clemson. 

As a redshirt junior with only two completed seasons of track and field, Jones will be eligible to compete on the football field for two seasons. 

As for 2026, Jones joins a dwindled offensive line unit. Offensive linemen Blake Miller, Tristan Leigh, Ryan Linthicum and Walker Parks were all starters in 2025, and have since been lost to the offseason. Rowan Byrne, although not a starter last year, was also lost in a transfer to North Carolina.

Interestingly, through its 10 offseason portal additions, Clemson added no offensive linemen, despite losing so many important pieces. Instead, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Dabo Swinney opted for the recruitment path, adding six linemen out of high school.

Below is a list of them:

OL Leo Delaney, 3-star recruit, 6-foot-5, 275 pounds, No. 29 OL recruit

OL Carter Scruggs, 4-star recruit, 6-foot-5, 290 pounds, No. 18 OL recruit

OL Chancellor Barclay, 4-star recruit, 6-foot-3.5, 290 pounds, No 8 OL recruit

OL Grant Wise, 4-star recruit, 6-foot-3, 280 pounds, No. 15 OL recruit

OT Adam Guthrie, 3-star recruit, 6-foot-7, No. 38 OT recruit

OT Braden Wilmes, 3-star recruit, 6-foot-8, 270 pounds, No. 74 OT recruit

All of the above information is according to 247Sports.

It is interesting to note that at 6-foot-8, Jones is taller than every other player at his position, other than redshirt junior Dominic Cardone, who towers at 6-foot-9. But ultimately, the addition of Braden Wilmes in the fall will make Jones one of two 6-foot-8 offensive linemen. 

But with Jones with a proven ability to throw heavy objects, Clemson will look for Jones to move some mass on the frontlines in 2026.