Clemson defensive tackle Albert Huggins might be the most talented player in the NFL Draft who spent basically his whole college career behind others on the depth chart.
3 reasons Clemson’s Albert Huggins could be a (sort of) hidden NFL Draft gem
Huggins spent a lot of time in the background at Clemson, but he’s a serious pro prospect.
Original image: Getty.
That’s the price of playing at Clemson, where Dexter Lawrence, Christian Wilkins, Clelin Ferrell, and Austin Bryant made up one of the fiercest starting D-lines in college football history — and stayed intact as the starting unit for two full years. With Lawrence and Wilkins, two likely first-rounders, at tackle, there was limited space in the middle.
Huggins was a backup at Clemson. That doesn’t mean he can’t be more in the NFL.
1. Huggins has always been a serious talent, despite not starting at Clemson.
The former four-star defensive lineman was the No. 1 prospect coming out of South Carolina in the 2015 recruiting class, per the 247Sports Composite.
When he signed with the Tigers, he was the No. 12 player at his position overall, and recruited by the likes of Georgia, Alabama, and Auburn. Huggins didn’t make many starts (four) at Clemson as any player would hope, but he would’ve been a first-teamer at any number of college programs. He just happened to play behind Lawrence and Wilkins.
“It was frustrating,” Huggins told SB Nation at the NFL Combine. “But I prayed about it, I had faith about it, and I just stuck in there, man. God has a plan for everyone, and whenever it’s time for that plan to come into play it’ll come into play.”
Wilkins was widely expected to turn pro after 2017, opening a door for Huggins to start. But Wilkins stayed at Clemson for his senior year. Here’s Tigers blog Shakin The Southland:
Clemson did in fact have its two interior guys of the future, but it was Wilkins and Lawrence instead of Wilkins and Huggins.
Huggins easily could have made the decision to transfer after his sophomore season, and justifiably so, yet he patiently waited his turn. Most assumed that turn would come in 2018 and that he’d finally get his shot to start with Wilkins departing for the NFL Draft. However, once again, that’s not how things ultimately played out.
After the Tigers lost to Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, Wilkins surprised many by announcing he was coming back for his final season. Huggins, a rising senior, once again could have easily decided to move on. The logical choice, it would have seemed, would have been to go somewhere he could start and improve his draft stock, right? Not for Huggins. Instead, he stayed, kept grinding, and by the end of the season many of the national pundits were referring to him as the best backup DT in the country.
Huggins was a backup largely by choice, and a great backup at that.
2. Labeling Huggins a career backup (or being skeptical of his pro potential because of that) doesn’t really explain his college experience.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney considered Huggins a “co-starter,” and the numbers say that’s not that far from true. Consider the snap counts on Clemson’s line in 2018:
- Ferrell: 691
- Bryant: 667
- Wilkins: 614
- Lawrence: 460
- Huggins: 408
It’s part of Clemson’s philosophy to play basically the whole roster, and not just in garbage time. Wilkins played only about 14 more snaps per game than Huggins.
3. Huggins was in the spotlight at the end of his Clemson career, when Lawrence was suspended for a positive PED test, and he played well.
Huggins became a starter after Lawrence was suspended prior to the Tigers’ 2018 Playoff semifinal against Notre Dame. Lawrence missed Clemson’s Playoff run after he failed a drug test, testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug, ostarine.
Huggins filled in pretty seamlessly for Lawrence in both of Clemson’s Playoff games. He helped his defense hold the Fighting Irish to just three points in the Cotton Bowl semifinal, and registered five tackles in a national championship rout of Alabama.
Although Huggins can both stop the run and rush the passer, he finished with more sacks (3) than Lawrence did (1.5) in 2018. Against Bama and Notre Dame, he showed off his ability to pass-rush, something he told us he prides himself on.
In the Cotton Bowl, he showed a lot of quickness off the line of scrimmage:
He showed off his versatility, too, seen here looping around to pressure the edge and get to Irish quarterback Ian Book:
Look how quickly he got after Book here, too — mind you that Huggins is 6’3, 305 pounds:
And against Alabama in the National Championship, he got pressure on Tua Tagovailoa after smoothly faking out Ross Pierschbacher, No. 71, here:
“It was just preparation,” Huggins said. “I had been waiting for my opportunity for a long time and preparing like I was a starter and when I got my opportunity and I got a chance to play, I just went out there and showed the world what I got.”
Huggins is talented enough to get a shot with an NFL team.
And he has a track record of seizing the moment when an opportunity presents itself.
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