Clemson football legend interested in returning to Tigers as a coach

Sammy Watkins was a Clemson football legend. Could he soon become a Clemson football coach?

Watkins, who starred with the Tigers from 2011-14 and is still the program’s all-time leading receiver, has not explicitly retired from the NFL. But the 30-year-old wideout has not appeared in a game since January 2023 and said last week he “might be done” with professional football.

And once Watkins formally hangs up his cleats, getting back into the sport as a coach “could be my calling,” he said April 26 during a wide-ranging radio interview on Clemson flagship radio station 105.5 FM The Roar.

Speaking with host Mickey Plyler, Watkins, who was named to the Clemson Athletic Hall of Fame earlier this month, said he’s starting to think hard about life after football and strongly intimated he’d be interested in returning to the Tigers as a coach.

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney — with whom Watkins said he has a “great relationship” — often brings on former players as student assistant coaches while they finish up their undergraduate degrees through the Tiger Trust program, which Watkins said he’s interested in doing.

Watkins and his family will be on campus the first weekend of November to be inducted into the Clemson Athletic Hall of Fame along with eight other former athletes (including his former quarterback, Tajh Boyd) the same weekend the Tigers football team hosts Virginia Tech.

“And we might come back maybe a week prior to that and just show (my kids) the campus because I’ve been trying to influence my wife to allow me to come back and finish school and do a little coaching,” Watkins said, laughing. “But she’s kind of scared of that. Doesn’t want me to get locked in with it.”

Watkins later told Plyler that he’s also weighing possible careers in mentorship, motivational speaking and media. He wants to return to Clemson and graduate so he could potentially “do all those great things” and open up more career opportunities with a college degree in hand.

“And that’s why I need everybody who’s listening on this radio to reach out to my wife and try to convince her to let me be one of the best coaches in college football,” Watkins said jokingly, adding that he thinks coaching “could be my calling. I have to make a decision, within a year or two, of what Sammy Watkins’ next 20 years or 10 years or five years or 30 years are gonna look like.”

“Rest assured, I don’t want to sit home all day and rot. I don’t want to sit home all day and be a stay-at-home dad. I think my purpose is bigger than that. … I’ve definitely gotta be in the world helping people out, and that’s kind of what I’m driving towards.”

Sammy Watkins’ football career

A native of Fort Myers, Florida, Watkins arrived at Clemson as a five-star recruit and the No. 1 wide receiver in the class of 2011, according to 247Sports. Over the next three seasons, he put together a résumé matched by few in program history.

Watkins was named a first-team All-American three times — one of only five Clemson players to accomplish the feat — and holds program records for single-season receiving yards (1,464), career receiving yards (3,391) and career receiving yards per game (94.2).

A blazing-fast star of some of Swinney’s earliest teams at Clemson, Watkins is also tied with DeAndre Hopkins and Tee Higgins for the program receiving touchdowns record (27) and caught 240 passes, second only to Artavis Scott’s 245 from 2014-16.

Watkins was the No. 4 overall pick of the 2014 NFL Draft and played eight NFL seasons for five different teams from 2014-22. He had 1,000 yards with the Bills in 2015 and played a significant role for the Kansas City Chiefs during their 2019 Super Bowl winning season.

Still, Watkins said during his radio interview with 105.5 FM The Roar, learning in March that he’d been selected for the Clemson Athletic Hall of Fame was “one of the best feelings ever.”

“I was on a high for two weeks like I had just won another Super Bowl,” he said.

Watkins last played in the NFL in 2022, logging nine games and 206 receiving yards with the Green Bay Packers before being released and playing three games with the Baltimore Ravens later that season. Although he worked out for the Indianapolis Colts in November 2023, he did not appear in an NFL game last year.

Watkins, who turns 31 in June, has not formally retired and is still classified as an NFL free agent. But he said he’s increasingly turned his focus away from football and toward “being a dad” as well as other career endeavors. Watkins and his wife, Tala, have three daughters (ages 6, 8 and 9) and an 18-month-old son.

“And I’m trying to find my way,” Watkins said. “Like, I’m a great dad, and I do great around the house. And when people call me, I help out and stuff like that. But I think my purpose is bigger than that.”

Watkins added that it’s been “hard” for him to figure out his specific calling outside of football. The former Tigers wide receiver understands that a transition into coaching would likely require his family moving (and continuously moving down the line), which is why he’s adamant about looping in his wife on his thought process and will be deliberate with his decision.

“I’ve been on a schedule my whole life,” Watkins said. “I’ve been staying busy and had people to help me keep the right mindset, do the right things. … And now I don’t have that schedule, and it’s kind of weird. I’m trying to find who Sammy Watkins is outside of football.”

That could very well entail Watkins returning to his former program as a student assistant coach while he completes his degree. Or starting his coaching career somewhere else.

Regardless, the Tigers legend said he “can’t wait” to get back on Clemson’s campus for the Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Outside of his trip in March, he hadn’t visited in a few years due to family and NFL obligations.

“I know sometimes everybody else says I don’t come back as much as I should,” Watkins said. “But I think that’s gonna change within the next two or three years.”