This article is part of a series previewing the Razorbacks’ 2020 football roster.
College Students, get a year of HawgBeat coverage for just $11.95. Request details via email from your school account (.edu) to nchavanelle@yahoo.com.
College Career
Xavier Kelly’s collegiate career got off to a bad start at no fault of his own. During fall camp before his first season at Clemson, he was involved in a moped accident that left him on crutches for months and forced him to redshirt.
In the three years since, Kelly was buried on the depth chart of one of the best defensive lines in college football.
The Tigers made the College Football Playoffs all four years he was on the team, winning two national titles and losing another, but he was limited to only 256 total defensive snaps.
Statistically, he made 26 tackles - including 2.5 sacks - while also forcing one fumble and recovering another during his career at Clemson. According to Pro Football Focus, he also notched three quarterback hits and seven hurries.
Kelly’s PFF grade improved from 61.3 as a redshirt freshman to 70.3 when he played a career-high 94 snaps in 2018, but it fell to 51.1 last season. That was actually the second-lowest defensive grade among the 45 players who saw action on Clemson’s defense.
Although the analytics site doesn’t give career grades, if you average his season grades weighted by the number of snaps he played, Kelly’s grade comes out to 61.2.
