Vic Burley spent almost a month on the outside looking in, unsure if he would ever suit up for Clemson again. On Tuesday, head coach Dabo Swinney put an end to that wait, announcing that the senior defensive tackle is back on the team and will be ready to go this Saturday against UNC.
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It’s a big turnaround for a player who, just weeks ago, was staring down a suspension with no clear end date. Swinney made it clear the decision came down to how Burley handled everything that followed his arrest.
“He did something stupid, but I’m not gonna kick him off the team for being stupid,” Swinney said, per Chapel Fowler of The State Sports on X. “He handled it. He took personal ownership of it. He had some consequences.”
The trouble started back on August 22, when Clemson University police found Burley asleep in his truck around 2:15 a.m. with the engine still running. Officers said he showed signs of impairment, and a search of the truck turned up a prohibited item. He was arrested and charged, and Swinney suspended him that same day, “extremely disappointed” in the player’s decision.
But Burley didn’t fight the legal process, in fact, three days after his arrest, he pleaded guilty in Clemson University Municipal Court and accepted a conditional discharge.
That deal came with six months of supervision, drug and alcohol education, and 24 hours of community service. If he sticks to it, the charge gets wiped from his record entirely by February 2027.
The Clemson DT didn’t stay quiet about it either, as Burley posted a public apology and, according to Swinney, wrote personal letters too.
“He lost some money, too,” Swinney said, per Fowler on X. Swinney added that Burley wrote him a personal apology letter and to the entire team as well. He added that Burley is a good kid who’s been dealing with some unrelated personal stuff on top of everything. The team, Swinney said, is rallying around him.
For most of the last few weeks, Clemson simply moved forward as if Burley wasn’t part of the plan. He missed the season opener against LSU, and when Swinney rattled off his top defensive tackles earlier this month, Burley’s name wasn’t even in the mix.
That’s what made Tuesday’s reversal feel significant because nothing about Burley’s football ability had changed. What changed was that he had checked every box Swinney asked of him.
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Burley’s timing couldn’t be better for a Clemson defense that’s been dented up in the trenches. Transfer defensive tackle Markus Strong went down with what Swinney described as a likely season-ending injury against LSU, leaving the position thinner than the staff would like heading into conference play.
Defensive tackles coach Nick Eason didn’t hold back when talking about getting Burley back in the room.
“Vic is an amazing young man, and, hey, sometimes, amazing young men and men of character make poor choices. And he made a poor choice,” Eason said, according to Fox Carolina. “He took accountability for it. And he’s apologizing. I’m glad to have him back. And that’s what Clemson is about, man. We’re a holistic place. And when our kids make mistakes, we don’t turn our back on them. We discipline them, we hold them accountable, but we don’t turn our back on them.”
Eason also pointed to the timing of it all, with the defensive tackle room dealing with injuries just as Burley becomes available again.
Before any of this happened, Burley had actually been trending in the right direction on the field. He stood out during Clemson’s final preseason scrimmage, and last year he played in all 13 games and, in two seasons, picked up 15 tackles and a pass breakup.
Now a graduate senior, he’s got a chance to close out his Clemson career on better terms than the last month suggested.
As for this weekend’s matchup with UNC, Swinney isn’t putting much stock in having former Tar Heels offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens on his own staff as an analyst. He said UNC’s new coordinator, Bobby Petrino, has reshaped the offense so much and brought in so many new players that Kitchens’ old knowledge of the program won’t count for much of an edge Saturday.