Clemson Tigers' Hyped Freshman Has Been Strangely Invisible

The Clemson Tigers have won back-to-back games following their blowout loss to LSU in Week, 1 defeating Georgia Southern and North Carolina the last two weeks.

Obviously, the latter victory was more significant, as it came against a really solid Tar Heels squad and was Clemson's first ACC matchup of the season.

Freshman quarterback Tait Reynolds played well in his first start, running back Gideon Davidson lit it up and the defense got some big-time stops down the stretch.

But there is one player who has been conspicuously absent for the Tigers thus far in 2026: freshman wide receiver Naeem Burroughs.

Clemson bagged a trio of four-star 2026 receivers: Burroughs, Gordon Sellars and Connor Salmin. Burroughs was viewed as the cream of the crop and was expected to get some legitimate playing time right off the bat.

Well, the Jacksonville, Fl. played just three snaps against LSU and has not seen the field for the Tigers since.

What gives?

Thus far, Clemson has really only featured three receivers: T.J. Moore, Bryant Wesco and Tyler Brown. The fact that those three are the Tigers' primary wide outs is not surprising, especially in the case of Moore and Wesco.

But just about everyone figured that Burroughs would get at least some playing time.

Head coach Dabo Swinney even said that Burroughs had a really good week in the lead up to the UNC matchup, so it seemed like he was on tap to get a couple of targets.

That didn't happen.

In fact, it appears that Sellars has actually passed Burroughs on the depth chart. That was something that was mentioned as a possibility in fall camp, but it's still surprising to see it come to fruition given all of the hype that surrounded Burroughs initially.

Six Clemson wide receivers have registered catches thus far this season. Burroughs is not one of them.

Clearly, Burroughs needs to show more in practice to work his way into the rotation, but perhaps he isn't quite as ready as everyone thought he was heading into his debut campaign.

The Tigers will face California on the road this Friday. We'll see if Burroughs can find his way on to the field then.