Joseph Charleston Enters Transfer Portal

Clemson will lose another safety this season with the news of Joseph Charleston entering the transfer portal Tuesday afternoon.

The junior from Milton High School (GA) was a former four-star prospect and considered the 13th best safety in his class (2019). Despite finishing third overall in tackles (55) for the team last season, Charleston has only tallied 6 tackles with 66 snaps through the first 6 games of the 2021 season.

Alex Craft had this to say about Charleston in his season preview for Clemson’s safeties:

Charleston has the most physical upside on the boundary side of the unit, and I would’ve been cautiously optimistic to see him start this year had Turner elected to move on. Charleston will still find plenty of snaps like he did a year ago being the third safety in the dime, and that’s before considering Clemson may choose to rest Turner more than the usual starter since he’s so experienced that the staff may choose to substitute even more liberally early on in games. A third year junior now, this is usually the offseason when we see the “light come on” after a sophomore year full of steady improvement.

In the first two games of the season, Charleston logged 30 and 25 snaps respectively in the absence of Nolan Turner, but aside from 11 more snaps against NC State, he hasn’t seen the field since. Even with the season-ending injury to Lannden Zanders in the first quarter against UGA, Charleston hasn’t seen nearly as much playing time as Alex and perhaps Charleston himself expected, in part due to the stellar performance of freshman Andrew Mukuba.

With his departure, here is how the rest of the safety room looks:

While his decision to transfer doesn’t necessarily impact the starting rotation too much, it leaves depth even more shallow on a defense already straining with injuries that is being asked to pull a struggling offense to victory each week.

We wish Joseph the best with his future plans and hope to see him succeed wherever he plays next.