Tigers Lose OL to Season-Ending Injury

During his weekly Tuesday press conference, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney had some bad news on the injury front.

Swinney announced that reserve offensive lineman Dietrick Pennington is out for the season.

The redshirt junior will have to undergo surgery after partially tearing his ACL against App State on Sept. 7.

“I do have some bad news, in that we did lose Dietrick Pennington… He’s going to have his ACL repaired,” Swinney said. “It wasn’t fully torn, but it’s one of those deals, it’s not going to heal back up, so they’ve got to fix it. So, I hate that for that kid.”

Swinney said the Tigers hope to make this a redshirt year for Pennington.

“Our plan is to get the year back so that he’ll still have a couple years, because he really was starting to come on,” Swinney said. “Just a setback for him. But he’s in a good place mentally and knows what he’s got to do. But that’s another touugh loss for us for sure.”

A former four-star prospect from Evangelical Christian School (Tenn.), Pennington entered this season having previously played 54 offensive snaps over 12 career games.

This season, the 6-foot-5, 350-pounder saw action on special teams vs. No. 1 Georgia before playing 31 snaps vs. App State.