After starting two games during his freshman season, Shelton Lewis is expected to take on a much larger role in 2024.
And Lewis is planning to use some of the lessons learned during his first year with the Tigers to prepare for that expanded role.
One of those lessons is in how he prepares. While Lewis appeared in all 13 games a season ago, a lot of those snaps during the first half of the season came on special teams.
Over the back half of the season, as injuries started to mount, Lewis started to see more action. That included getting his first start in November against Georgia Tech where he earned ACC Rookie of the Week honors after recording four pass breakups and his first career interception, which he returned 46 yards for a touchdown.
“Just stay in your own lane,” Lewis told Darien Rencher on the TPL Podcast . “I can’t be comparing myself to whoever is in that room. I feel like we are all here for a reason. To play. So I say, just stay in your lane. Keep grinding and don’t get in that mindset to where I think I am better than them.”
“When your time comes, it is like all the work you out in, went in for a reason. So when that time does come, the work you put in is going to show. If you slack off because you ain’t playing, when you get in, you will look like you were unprepared.”
Lewis would then earn another start in the thrilling Gator Bowl win over Kentucky where he had another pass breakup and the game-sealing interception.
However, as successful as he has been as a defensive back, Lewis started out wanting to play another position. After watching Trevor Lawrence win a national title at Clemson and go on to be the top pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, Lewis wanted to be a quarterback.
“I wanted to play quarterback,” Lewis said. “I thought I was a quarterback. I played, quarterback, running back, receiver, I played everything (in high school), but I wanted to be a quarterback.”
After a conversation with his parents, Lewis decided his skillset would be best put to use at a different position. He flirted with the idea of playing receiver, but halfway through his high school career, he found his calling as a defensive back.
“My parents kind of sat me down and said be for real,” Lewis said. “So you get to that point and it’s like let me find out what I really want to do. So I went to receiver. Seeing the receivers that came through (Clemson), I was like alright I am going to be a receiver. Then 11th grade, DB it was. Went to safety, went to corner, I was at nickel, I was playing everything.”
Now one year into his college career, Lewis is shining at one of the premier programs in the country. When the Tigers open the season against Georgia on August 31, Lewis just might find himself as one of the starting corners in a secondary littered with young talent.
“We trying to be number one. I ain’t trying to sell nothing short,” Lewis said of the secondary. “Every practice, team meeting, every position meeting, I feel like we are never comfortable. After every game, we not trying to see what we did right, we trying to see what we did wrong. We all want each other to get better. There is nobody hating on nobody in our room. Even the safeties. It is a camaraderie I feel like most teams don’t got.”
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