Thirty Clemson Student-Athletes Earn Degrees Thursday

CLEMSON, S.C. – Thirty student-athletes earned degrees from Clemson University in commencement ceremonies held at Littlejohn Coliseum on Thursday. The 30 graduates included athletes from seven different sports, football, women’s golf, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s tennis and men’s and women’s track and field. Four of the Tiger graduates earned All-America honors on the field in 2018, football players Clelin Ferrell, Mitch Hyatt, and Christian Wilkins and women’s soccer player Sam Staab.

Wilkins, only the fifth unanimous First-Team All-America selection in Clemson history, was one of 14 members of the 2018 ACC Champion and College Football Playoff semifinal-bound Tiger football team to earn a degree on Thursday. The 2018 recipient of the William V. Campbell Trophy for the best football scholar-athlete in the nation, Wilkins was one of two football players to earn a Master’s degree, joining All-ACC center Justin Falcinelli, who earned a Master’s in Business Administration.

Staab, a United Soccer Coaches Third-Team All-American and the 2018 ACC Defensive Player of the Year, was one of three women’s soccer players to earn a degree on Thursday, joining three members of the Tiger men’s team as well. Four members of the Clemson women’s track and field team, and one from the men’s squad, graduated Thursday, along with one men’s tennis player and women’s golfer Sydney Legacy, a First-Team All-ACC selection and starter on three NCAA Tournament teams.

Three former Tigers returned to campus through the Tiger Trust program to earn their degrees on Thursday, baseball players Garrett Boulware and Chris Williams and men’s soccer player TJ Casner. The Tiger Trust program provides opportunities for student-athletes who have exhausted athletic eligibility or left early for a professional career to return to Clemson to earn an undergraduate degree if the athlete left in good standing, with scholarship assistance provided through the athletic department and IPTAY.