CLEMSON, S.C. _ When Jackson Carman was in his first year at Clemson, getting up and making a 5:30 a.m. workout was a challenge.
"Just couldn't show up on time," Tigers coach Dabo Swinney recalled this week.
Sometimes Carman would be late. One time, during a summer workout before his freshman season in 2018, he didn't show up at all.
"I would be in such a deep sleep, my alarm would go off, and I'd still be sleeping, and I would hear the alarm in my dream, and it would just turn into my dream," Carman said. "I wouldn't even wake up. It would just incorporate itself into my dream. I would just sleep right there with the alarm going."
After some inspirational words from Swinney and several of the leaders on Clemson's team, Carman knew he had to make a change. He was plenty big enough and athletic enough to help the Tigers. But in order to reach his potential and meet his goal of being the best offensive lineman in the country, he had to improve his work ethic and become more dependable.
One of his first steps included a trip to Wal-Mart.
"I bought an old-timey alarm clock with the bells that jumps on the table and stuff like that," Carman said. "I just knew I needed something loud that was going to make a lot of noise, so I just got an old-timey one."
Carman has gone from a player Swinney described as "one of the least accountable" on the team to a leader for the Tigers as a sophomore.
He has stepped into four-year starter Mitch Hyatt's spot at left tackle, and the Tigers haven't missed a beat. Carman dropped 20 pounds this summer and at 6-foot-5, 335 pounds has been a nightmare for opposing defenders to go up against through the first four weeks of the 2019 season.
"He's just got an edge and a drive to him that is very encouraging for a young player, his first year starting. I think he's just gotten serious about life, accountability, discipline," Swinney said. "He's now really become a very polished, complete player. He's still got a lot of work to do, but just super, super proud of his progress."
Carman said there was no specific talk or event that occurred and led to his changed outlook. Instead, it was a gradual process after arriving at Clemson from Ohio.
"At this level everyone's good ... Everyone has talent, everyone has potential. You have to find what's going to be able to separate you from everyone else. So if you're willing to work harder than everyone else in the room then you'll end up being the best in the room," Carman said. "But if you just sit back and think that your talent is going to carry you, it's only going to take you so far. You think about it, the more talent you have, the harder you work, the better you can be. Why would you not want to maximize?"
Carman is also maximizing his talents off the field.
The first time he met Swinney while on an unofficial visit he picked up a guitar in the coach's office and started playing "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas.
"Well, that's a first," Swinney thought.
Clemson holds club "All In" every year, a talent show type event with players on the team. Carman stole the show this year.
"He's amazing and now he's confident too. He can flat out sing and so this year he and two or three other guys, they volunteered to get up there. I mean he nailed it," Swinney said. "He was the best performance of the day. He's just really talented. I mean really, really talented. He can do anything. There's not anything I think Jackson can't do."
That includes water sports.
Carman loves spending time on the lake, whether it be wakesurfing, wakeboarding or jet skiing.
He credits Clemson for helping him grow, both on and off the field, into the person and player he is today.
"I feel like the culture we have here definitely promotes that. It forces you to change, and if you don't change it's just going to break you down," Carman said.
And of course the old-timey alarm clock helped too.
