{"id":753814,"date":"2026-07-10T02:45:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T02:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/753814\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T02:45:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T02:45:26","slug":"the-clemson-insider-71","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/753814\/","title":{"rendered":"The Clemson Insider"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Clemson lineman is no longer a member of the Tigers\u2019 roster. <\/p>\n

Watson Young, who was entering his third season at Clemson, has decided to step away from football, a team spokesperson told The Clemson Insider. <\/p>\n

Young missed the entire 2024 season after suffering a knee injury and did not see any game action last year. <\/p>\n

During the spring, head coach Dabo Swinney said Young had been working at center.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just battling. He\u2019s battling. He\u2019s in there competing at center, trying to get in the mix as well,\u201d Swinney said. \u201cThe biggest thing with him is just he missed a lot of time. He\u2019s missed a bunch of time around here. It\u2019s hard to compete when you\u2019re not available. And then all of a sudden you get behind, and it\u2019s the season, and you\u2019re kind of repping the guys that are playing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, the spring is the time to get out there and compete. And that\u2019s one of the things I told him \u2013 like, let\u2019s go compete. Because he can. But he\u2019s a center, for sure, and we need him. And he\u2019s a consistent guy. So now, he\u2019s got to really just be available every day and gain some confidence throughout the spring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watson, who signed with the Tigers as a three-star prospect out of nearby Daniel High School, has several ties to Clemson. His father, Kyle Young, is a Clemson Athletic Hall of Famer. He played for the Tigers from 1998-2001 and was a two-time All-American on the field as Clemson\u2019s starting center across the 1999-2001 seasons.<\/p>\n

Watson\u2019s uncle, Will Young, was an offensive lineman at Clemson from 1992-95 and was an All-ACC selection in 1995. Watson\u2019s great-grandfather, Ed McLendon, lettered in 1939 and played on the first bowl team in Clemson history that earned a 6-3 win in the 1940 Cotton Bowl. Watson\u2019s grandfather, Ben Watson, was a linebacker at Clemson from 1968-70.<\/p>\n

Watson was one of five finalists for Mr. Football in South Carolina in 2023. Daniel went 51-1 during his four years at the high school, winning three state titles in four years. He was an All-State honoree in 2022 and 2023 and was named to the South Carolina Shrine Bowl team in 2023.<\/p>\n

\"\"Clemson offensive lineman Watson Young (56) during the annual spring game Saturday, March 28, 2026 at Clemson\u2019s Memorial Stadium. Bart Boatwright\/The Clemson Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Clemson lineman is no longer a member of the Tigers\u2019 roster. Watson Young, who was entering his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[6596,399,6600,6598,398,396,397,6597,99,6599,6601],"class_list":["post-753814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-clemson-insider-podcast","tag-football","tag-gymnastics","tag-hero","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-noonan","tag-sports","tag-track-and-field","tag-wednesday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}