As Isaiah Simmons stood on the turf at the The Carrier Dome answering questions after Clemson's 41-6 victory against Syracuse on Saturday night, the Tigers' redshirt junior linebacker couldn't help but smile.
Simmons seriously considered entering the NFL Draft following the 2018 season to pursue his lifelong dream of playing at the next level, but "unfinished business" led to his decision to play one more year for the Tigers.
The 6-foot-4, 230-pound athletic freak was told that he would go anywhere from the first round to the third round in the 2019 draft if he opted to leave school after his redshirt sophomore season, but that wasn't good enough.
"I told Isaiah, 'Whatever happens, you have to be OK with this,'" recalled his father, Victor Simmons. "And Isaiah said, 'No, I'm not OK with being a second or third round draft pick. I'm a first round draft pick.' So to solidify that, he decided to go back to school."
That decision could not be working out better for the Kansas native through the first three weeks of the 2019 season.
Simmons leads the Tigers with 27 tackles, including 17 solo stops. No other player on Clemson's roster has more than eight solo tackles.
Simmons had perhaps the best game of his career Saturday against the Orange, recording a game-high 11 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and a career-high two sacks. He continues to raise his draft stock after telling Clemson coach Dabo Swinney before the season that this will be his last year. And Simmons will likely be a first-round pick in the 2020 draft, with the potential to climb into the top 10.
As crazy as it is to think about now, with Simmons being a star on the Clemson defense, he almost didn't end up with the Tigers at all. It took his dream school passing on him, a Clemson safety turning pro at the last minute and Brent Venables receiving a late tip for Simmons to end up with the Tigers, where he has blossomed into a superstar.
"Me and Isaiah have had this conversation several times. I asked Isaiah, 'Do you think if you were playing somewhere else you would have the (fame) you have, that you would be in the spotlight that you're in if you played somewhere else?'" Victor Simmons said. "And he said, 'No, I still would be good, but I don't think I would get all of this attention that I'm getting now.'"
It's attention that is much-deserved and will only continue to grow.
