Note: The following appears in the Troy football gameday program.
The journey to earning a spot onto a college football team is not easy. Countless days and nights of sweat, tears and work goes into achieving the dream of playing football on the big stage. Even after making it big, the work gets even harder.
Tristan Leigh’s journey to Clemson reached a climax when he committed to the Tigers on Jan. 2, 2021. With so many options on the table, Clemson felt right as a school that would help him succeed, not only as a football player, but also as a man.
“I looked at my final schools and I knew I wanted to play at a big school and win a national championship,” said Leigh. “But honestly, I believed I could hit all of my football goals while also getting more of a holistic development by going to Clemson.”
After an outstanding tenure in high school as an offensive tackle at James W. Robinson Secondary School in Virginia, Leigh was nationally ranked as a five-star recruit and top player at his position. It did not take long for former Clemson Defensive Coordinator Brent Venables to recruit him and set Leigh’s career trajectory to the Palmetto State, fulfilling a dream he always had along the way.
“My dad played football at Virginia, so growing up, all I heard was stories about him,” stated Leigh. “All I ever wanted to do was play football, and I was trying to be like him.”
Stan Leigh was a running back for the Cavaliers from 1990-94, and his experience and love for football motivated his son to pursue football as well. With the support of both his father and mother, Laura, he began playing flag football when he was young and eventually started playing tackle football in seventh grade, once his mother allowed him to.
Leigh started his time with the Tigers in the fall of 2021, when he redshirted while playing on the scout team. While there, his main task was to get former Clemson defensive end Myles Murphy ready for games, which was not an easy task. Through his training and experience in the trenches of working towards improving and living up to the standards of a five-star recruit, he developed and learned to be strong and to persevere.
“I developed that mental toughness every day. It doesn’t matter how I’m feeling, because I have a job to do. As I have moved up in the ranks and gotten older, my appreciation and perspective didn’t change from that guy who was on the scout team. I gained a perspective of how we need every single person on…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Clemson Tigers Official Athletics Site…