AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — Many people may not have realized how good of a player Trent Pearman is, but they should now if they saw how the walk-on quarterback performed in Clemson’s April 6 spring game.
Pearman saw action at quarterback for both teams and shined in the contest at Death Valley, showing why head coach Dabo Swinney has called him a “baller.”
The redshirt sophomore was throwing darts and dishing the rock, and between his action for the two teams, he finished 13-of-18 passing for 141 yards and had a nice touchdown pass. For good measure, Pearman also put his athleticism on display with a 49-yard touchdown run.
Swinney has seen Pearman — and his skills — for years dating back to Pearman’s days at Daniel High School, where he threw for 6,555 yards and 80 touchdowns in his high school career while going 24-0 as the Lions’ starting quarterback and leading Daniel to back-to-back state championships.
“That’s why we tried to get him to come. He was a really good player,” Swinney said Monday of Pearman in an exclusive interview with The Clemson Insider at the ACC’s Spring Meetings at the Ritz-Carlton in Amelia, Island, Fla.
“Saw him every game that he played. Won a couple championships and a couple of high accolades, postseason awards and things like that.”
A two-time Gatorade Player of the Year in South Carolina, Pearman is a big reason why the Tigers didn’t sign a quarterback in their 2024 recruiting class, or bring in a quarterback from the transfer portal, even with backup quarterback Hunter Helms transferring this offseason.
Between Pearman, redshirt freshman Christopher Vizzina and returning starter Cade Klubnik, as well as redshirt freshman walk-on Colby Shaw and incoming freshman walk-on Ethan Anderson, Swinney and the Tigers are high on who they have in their quarterback room.
“That’s why we got him (Pearman) here, and that’s why we didn’t go take a quarterback, because we really like our roster,” Swinney said. “We’ve got another preferred walk-on coming in. But we feel really good about Cade. We feel great about CV. We feel great about Trent and his development. He’s still developing. He lacks some things that you’d like, but he makes up for it in other areas, and he’s just a really good player.
“ His role has already changed because he went from just being the scout-team guy to actually getting a chance to get some reps. And same thing for CV – he went from just watching and mentally really trying to get the system down, to now a chance to go compete in the spring. Those guys did a great job, they really did. All of them, and really proud of where they are. Got a big summer ahead, and then we’ll add Ethan when he gets here. So, we think it’s a good room.”
Swinney pointed out that when Clemson last won the national championship in 2018, legendary wide receiver Hunter Renfrow was getting reps as a backup QB behind Trevor Lawrence and Chase Brice – and that Pearman certainly has a leg up on Renfrow when it comes to playing quarterback.
“I know the last time we won the national championship, our third-team guy was Hunter Renfrow,” Swinney said. “So, I definitely think Pearman is a step above ole Hunter when it comes to quarterback, and our fourth-team was (punter) Will Spiers, and we found a way to have a great year that year with just Trevor and Chase. So, we’ve got a lot of work to do, but we like the guys in the room.”
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