Marcus Tate’s Clemson career hasn’t come without plenty of adversity and challenges, particularly from an injury standpoint.
The veteran offensive lineman has battled multiple injuries since he first stepped foot on campus as a four-star prospect from Florida back in 2021. But despite the setbacks, Tate has seen a lot of action for the Tigers, having logged 1,843 career offensive snaps over 32 games (27 starts) entering his senior season in 2024.
A three-year starter, Tate recently reflected on how he’s dealt with and overcome injuries during his Clemson career to date.
“From the mental standpoint of it, it’s really just staying positive throughout the whole time,” Tate said during the latest episode of Clemson Football’s 2 Right Turns podcast . “Because when you get into it, you can go into with a negative mindset because you just got hurt, and other life is going on – it’s not like your life stops when you get injured, and that was something that I really struggled with. Because I was actually going through a hard time at the time, and I remember just thinking, like, ‘Dang, everything’s coming down on me right now.’”
Tate played in 13 games and made eight starts during his first year at Clemson in 2021, when he started the opener against Georgia and became only the third Tiger true freshman offensive lineman since 1972 to start a season opener.
As a sophomore in 2022, Tate started all 11 games in which he appeared prior to suffering a season-ending injury against Miami in mid-November. The 6-foot-5, 325-pounder then made eight more starts last season before being lost to another season-ending knee injury.
“With my two injuries, I think the hardest thing to deal with was just like, ‘Why does this keep happening?’” Tate recalled. “And I remember just coming off my last injury, it was really the confidence in my knee to tell myself, like, ‘It’s going to be OK when I’m out there on the field.’”
As he gets ready to return to the field in the upcoming season, Tate credits his teammates for helping him battle through the injuries.
“Really going through the two injuries, I really just relied on my brothers here,” he said. “They, every day, were positive with me, telling me that I’m going to be alright, keeping my mind off it a lot of the time and really just focusing on things that make me feel good, more positive things, positive affirmations they were giving me every day, and I think that was really the key to it all. I was able to stay levelheaded, and that’s how I feel like I was able to get through it.”
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