What Grant Wise's Extended Reps in Week 3 Say About Clemson's Offensive Line

While the main storyline surrounding Clemson's ACC-opening win over North Carolina and head coach Bill Belichick centered on erasing an 11-point deficit, some noticeable offensive changes up front helped make it happen.

On Saturday, true freshman offensive lineman Grant Wise got his first significant chunk of in-game reps as a replacement for redshirt sophomore Ronan O'Connell, who has arguably been the worst player on Clemson's offensive line to this point.

Wise performed well for someone who’s only seen eight snaps of College Football before, especially in pass protection, an area where O'Connell has struggled mightily, allowing just two pressures and one sack across 34 snaps. He also helped the run game a lot, as the backfield committee boasted just 41 yards (finished with 186 total) prior to Wise coming in after halftime.

Following the contest, head coach Dabo Swinney raved about Wise, calling him "a stud" who the staff felt could make an immediate impact on the offense.

“He’s a stud, that’s why we recruited him,” he said in his post-game press conference. “We felt like he’d help us right away, and he’s emerging.”

The 6-foot-4, 300-pound offensive lineman was rated a four-star prospect and ranked inside the top 15 amongst interior linemen in the 2026 class. While starting 45 consecutive games at Pace High School in Florida, Wise totaled 485 pancakes while allowing zero sacks and zero pressures.

He was named a First-Team Rivals All-American as a senior and earned multiple MaxPreps All-American honors throughout his high school career.

Outside of being dominant on the football field, he participated in two other sports that have immensely helped his journey as an offensive lineman: wrestling and weightlifting, capturing both Olympic and traditional weightlifting titles at Florida's 3A state meet as a junior.

“I don’t know that we’ve ever signed a guy better than Grant Wise,” Swinney said on National Signing Day last December. "This is a beast of a man, like this is a guy that looks like he’s a senior in college right now.”

That kind of high school production and physical foundation is part of why Clemson felt comfortable throwing him into the fire so early, and Swinney says it's part of a bigger plan for the whole roster.

“And that’s something we just went into the game like we want to build depth,” he continued. “It’s a long season, and we got to have some depth. All of a sudden, you’ll look up, and you’re in game six or seven, and guys hadn’t played. So we’ve just committed ourselves to playing these guys that we think deserve to play; that are just going to get better, and you just have to play them.”

Much of the talk to begin the season has centered on the poor offensive line play, which is understandable given the production, but some fans are even calling for offensive line coach Matt Luke's job. While yes, the position group should have been a much bigger emphasis throughout the portal cycle, it wasn’t, and there’s nothing that can be done about that now.

What Luke has done since coming to Clemson ahead of the 2024 season, though, is recruit. In fact, he’s successfully recruited nine four-stars across the past two seasons. Many have praised him for these additions, but don’t realize that these kids are young and that the only way they’ll get better is by playing for now.

Therein lies the disconnect: everyone wants the results without accounting for the process. Again, that’s why the transfer portal should’ve been utilized better, but this is the situation Clemson Football is in.

That said, Wise, at least, offers a glimpse of what that development can look like once these younger guys get real reps. Swinney knows the rest of the room isn't there yet, but he's betting the approach will pay off the same way.

“Just like you play guys on the d-line, we have to get some of these guys experience,” the veteran coach finished. “Now, they’ve got to hold their own, and they are, and they’re earning more playing time, and it’s going to make us better as we go through the season.”

Clemson's offensive line isn't great yet, but Wise's debut suggests it may not need a scheme change or a coaching change, just time. We've seen the same thing with redshirt freshman Easton Ware, who has progressively gotten better while splitting time at right tackle with fifth-year Collin Sadler.

Then again, it's also possible the true freshman is just a special player.

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