Ethan Anderson's last visit to Clemson didn't go quite as planned.
The in-state quarterback, out of JL Mann, was supposed to be taking a tour for athletic trainers, as that is something he was looking to get into after high school. However, the further he got into the tour that was being led by support staffer Tajh Boyd, Anderson got the feeling something else might be in play.
All would soon be revealed as Anderson was pulled into a meeting with offensive coordinator Garrett Riley. Suddenly, it was a different kind of offer he was presented with. And one he was not expecting, as Riley offered him a spot on the football team as a preferred walk-on.
"We talked a little bit and he asked me if I was liking school," Anderson told All Clemson Tigers. "Then he just asked me if I wanted to come play football. And I was like, yeah. It was good."
Anderson is plenty familiar with the recruiting process, as he was being courted by smaller schools including Presbyterian, North Greenville and Furman, but getting an opportunity to play at Clemson, the school he grew up rooting for, was something that he didn't see coming.
"It was kind of shocking, really," Anderson said. "I was getting recruited by more of these FCS, D-2 schools. I haven't ever really gotten too much interest from a D-1, Power-5 school. Especially from one like Clemson, the place that I grew up at pretty much and watched all my life. It was just a surreal kind of feeling and moment."
Having grown up a Clemson fan, Anderson has attended many games over the years and has worked out at Dabo Swinney's high school camp on multiple occasions. Getting to actually run down that hill in front of a packed-out Death Valley as a member of the team is something he has long dreamt about.
"I'm definitely going to be nervous, but I'm going to be excited," he said. "Just standing at the top of the hill, touching the rock, looking out and seeing 80,000 fans, it's gonna be like a dream. Really, that's what it's gonna feel like. It's gonna feel like a dream. It's gonna be something that I'll never forget. I know it."
Although, before that time comes, Anderson knows there is work to be done on the field. While he doesn't enroll until the summer, once fall camp starts, it's all about competing, and earning his spot in the pecking order on the depth chart.
Anderson threw for more than 3,100 yards with 42 TD passes as a senior and the state's Region 1-5A Offensive Player of the Year is confident he has something to add to the Tigers' quarterback room.
"Playing at this level, it's just going out there competing," Anderson said. "Everyone's chasing the same thing and that's the starting job. I know that the other guys I will be competing against are gonna have the same mentality as I will. Although we're friends, obviously teammates, we're all going to be trying to earn that starting spot. So, I'm gonna go in there with a mindset of trying to get there and just working my butt off to not only make myself better, but the people around me better."
The thing he might be most looking forward to though, is being a part of the culture that Swinney has created inside of the Clemson program. Anderson knows that along with being developed on the field, he will also be developed off the field.
"I've been following Clemson football for so long now, I've been able to see the kind of things that they do with the players and how they treat the players, how the coach's just run everything. And it's so special," Anderson said. "It just feels unique in a way. Maybe just because that's really the only program I've kind of paid attention to for the last however long but I'm really excited to be a part of it and get to experience all the different things that come along with such a great program."
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