Note: The following appears in the Florida State gameday football program.
The approach of locker-room leadership is wide-ranging in the world of college football, with some players choosing to lead by actions and others choosing to lead through the spoken word. For Tremayne Anchrum, a healthy heaping of both of those leadership styles has made him one of the most trusted leaders on the Tiger roster.
An offensive tackle, Anchrum takes on his blocking assignments with a mentality that has led him to become one of the ACC’s top offensive linemen and one of Clemson’s most instrumental leaders.
Anchrum is the de facto voice of the 2019 Tigers, with the eloquent, insightful senior regularly taking part in one-on-one interviews with sportswriters, guest appearances on radio shows and other media interactions. After all, Anchrum’s words have shaped the veteran passblocker into the ultimate football commodity of a student-athlete who encourages his teammates through his words and his actions.
His father, Tremayne Anchrum Sr., influenced the younger Anchrum to adopt that particular leadership mentality, which has evinced itself by Anchrum tackling each and every game as if it is a battle that can only be won by way of unrelenting intensity from each and every player on the field.
“My father always taught me to lead by encouraging others to follow me into battle, not simply telling people to go into battle themselves.”
Many would say that Anchrum is following in his father’s footsteps, as the elder Anchrum was an all-state high-school athlete in basketball and football before starring at Southern California in basketball. However, Anchrum and his father would disagree. Anchrum is forging his own path through life, and instead of trying to emulate his father, he is utilizing all of the wisdom passed down to him by his father in an effort to be the best version of himself.
In Anchrum’s opinion, a team is equal to the sum of its players, meaning that a team cannot reach its full potential unless its players settle for nothing short of greatness in everything they do.
“We want to be the best in the country, and that means coming to work every day, having a blue-collar mentality and getting after it.”
That tried-and-true workhorse mindset serves as the crux of how Clemson’s offensive line goes about its duties. It is a generally accepted, yet unfortunate truth that offensive linemen often are undeservedly unheralded because of the lack of eye-popping statistics and flashy playmaking pertaining to blocking.
However, anyone and everyone affiliated with Clemson football is quick to opine that the Tigers’ recent string of remarkable success would not have been possible without consistent greatness by the offensive line.
“We may not get a lot of outside praise or credit, but we know that our teammates appreciate us and have a genuine appreciation for what we do. That’s what we love and can’t get enough of.”
An alumnus of McEachern High School in Powder Springs, Ga., Anchrum earned first-team all-state honors before choosing to be a part of the Clemson Family. After paying his dues as an accountable role player in Clemson’s pass-blocking regime, Anchrum became a full-time starter in 2018, when he helped lead the Tigers to a national title. In fact, the Tigers have won two national championships during Anchrum’s Clemson career, and while the senior leader is hoping to increase that total to three in his final season, he understands how fortunate he is to have had the opportunity to reap the benefits of Clemson’s winning culture.
“It’s been a special ride that not many people ever get to experience. A lot of players spend their entire careers chasing one championship, and I’ve gotten two. That speaks volumes to the leadership of Head Coach Dabo Swinney and the kind of men he brings in here.”