Dabo Swinney Has High Praise for Incoming 2022 LB Wade Woodaz

Wade Woodaz was one of the later additions to the 2022 recruiting class.

The 6-foot-3, 205-pound player out of Jesuit High School in Tampa committed to Clemson back on Thanksgiving Day and had offers from Utah, Iowa, Louisville, Miami, Vanderbilt, West Virginia, and Georgia Tech.

Through the first eleven games of his senior season, Woodaz had 59 tackles, six tackles for loss, an interception and a sack. While he has mostly played safety during his high school career, the Tigers recruited him to play linebacker, and as he gets set to start his collegiate career, head coach Dabo Swinney likened the young prospect to a former Clemson great.

"I'm not saying he's Isaiah Simmons but he's very similar to that coming out of high school," Swinney said. "Isaiah wouldn't want me to say it but he's probably a little more coordinated than Isaiah was in putting it all together. Isaiah was like a big old giraffe when he rolled in here and trying to figure it all out, how to get it all together, and redshirted and then just kind of kept going from there."

One of the things that attracted the Tigers to Woodaz was his versatility and like Simmons, Swinney thinks with a little time to develop, the young linebacker can be a major contributor for the Tigers.

"This kid's been a quarterback," Swinney said. "He is a very versatile guy. He is physical. It's hard to find a guy much more physical, but Isaiah was a safety. You know, he played receiver, Isaiah did, and so he was a good athlete. But they have similar frames. He is a big, long, good-looking young prospect. His frame, I mean, he'll be a 230-pound guy pretty quickly as he gets going into the progression of the program."

Coming out of Jesuit, who just won their first state title since 1968, Swinney maintains that Woodaz has been very well-coached and that not only is he a great fit for the Clemson defense, he's also a great fit for the program as a whole.

"But, you know, love everything about this kid," Swinney said. "He's got all the attributes that we love, and he's got the physicality. He's coming from a great program; well-coached down there at Jesuit."

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