Freshman Report: Jackson Carman hopes to build off "complete learning experience"

Jackson Carman shows his excitement in Santa Clara

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Thu Jan 24 08:16:59 GMT-04:00 2019

It’s hard to lose a player the caliber of Mitch Hyatt and not feel the loss, but Jackson Carman has the confidence he can take over at Hyatt’s left tackle spot and not miss a beat.

Carman entered Clemson as a highly-touted 5-star tackle prospect but spent much of the spring battling weight issues and learning the complexities of the offense. Carman made up his mind to use the summer to lose weight, get in the playbook and earn playing time behind Hyatt.

He shocked the coaches when he showed up in August five pounds under their target weight, and he spent the season as Hyatt’s main backup.

“It's been fun, but it's also been a learning process. Learning about the leadership and learning from the coaches about technique and learning more about football,” Carman said. “There is also learning stuff off the field, like school. I had a really good semester last semester and had a good semester personally and socially. It was a complete learning experience.”

Carman still has work to do in the weight room – he played last season at 340 but hopes to be around 315 by August – but he already knows he can accomplish what he sets his mind to accomplish.

“I am looking forward to the spring. I just want to keep on training and getting better so I am ready when my time is called,” Carman said. “From a football aspect, definitely just technique and being consistent with that technique. This is a really technical game. You have to think about hand placement and footwork and pad level, everything that goes into being a good offensive lineman and that you it need to be second nature. Off the field, just buying into the structure of the program and making sure I am doing all of my schoolwork on time and getting to the workouts on time.

“It’s just such a tight-packed itinerary that we have every day and it was overwhelming that first semester. We literally have 5:30 AM workouts and then you have to go to class and go to tutoring and then go back to class and then eat lunch and then back over for meetings, and then you might have things all afternoon and tutoring that night. Now I am handling it all a lot better and it has been good. It's actually nice knowing that you can set a goal and complete that goal and do it to the best of your ability.”

Living in Clemson does have its advantages, and when he wants to take a break from football or school work he heads to a nearby lake.

“One of the most fun things I did this summer was get introduced to water sports for the first time,” Carman said. “Growing up in Ohio, I grew up in an underprivileged part of town and no one had boats, No one would go to the lake or anything like that. I've made friends with people here and I've been on Lake Hartwell and Lake Keowee and I've been boating, wakeboarding, jet skiing, tubing, and all of the different type of stuff. It's been fun.”