Thank you so much for visiting my website and for your interest in my journey. I’m excited to use this platform as a way to share a little bit more about me and give you a closer look at what life is like as a college football player and student-athlete. I’m not exactly sure what I’ll have to say, but I like to write and figure from time to time this may be a better way than social media to tell you what’s going on. I guess the best way to get started is to tell you my story.
I was born April 27, 2005 in Birmingham, Alabama and spent much of my childhood playing different sports. For a while, baseball was my #1. I traveled everywhere playing little league and I played every position except catcher. Around the age of 12, I started focusing on basketball partly because of my height and athleticism. Around the same time, I was playing receiver for Briarwood Christian’s middle school football team when my best friend – our quarterback – got hurt and I was forced to play the position. Our team won the rest of its games that season and I realized maybe I should have been playing QB all along.
I had a close-up look at college football growing up because my dad was the head of food services at Samford University and the football team’s chef. Pat Sullivan was the coach at the time and he loved my dad so he’d let him bring me to practices. I loved watching the older guys play and compete. I wanted to be like those guys.
My passion for sports and football also came from growing up in Birmingham. Even though we don’t have an NFL team, sports are a big deal here. Everyone is a college football and basketball fan. Even the minor league baseball team, the Barons, are a big deal. And high school football is huge. When I was younger my dad would take me to watch Friday night lights.
As an eighth grader I joined our high school varsity team at Briarwood Christian for spring practice. I wasn’t really ready, but I had some arm talent and did the best I could to hang in. That summer, I went to some camps and got my first offer from the University of Alabama-Birmingham, my hometown team. I thought – maybe football is my thing. And then during freshman year, I got my chance to find out. The upperclassman QB in front of me got hurt and suddenly I was a varsity starter at 14 years old. We won 11 straight games and didn’t lose until the state semi-finals. That’s when I knew for sure that this is what I wanted to do.
My whole focus changed after that playoff run. I started taking food seriously and went from being skinny to weighing 190 pounds by the end of sophomore year. (Having a chef for a dad definitely helped.) I found a great quarterback coach in Ben Neill from QB Country and because I didn’t play the position as a kid I didn’t have many bad habits to break. I could simply concentrate on getting better and better and learning as much as possible about the position.
People on the outside told me to transfer to a larger highschool after my ninth grade year so I could gain more exposure to schools in the power five conferences. They were wrong. I stayed where I was planted and still made it happen.
I started getting some offers that summer, but during junior year things got crazy. Everything I dreamed of – winning as a team with my best friends, scholarship offers from my dream schools, becoming a 5-star, it all came together. By senior year, I found that my greatest purpose was doing all I could to make sure the younger guys felt the same support and encouragement I’d felt when I was the skinny little eighth grader at spring practice. I knew I couldn’t have succeeded without those who came before me showing the way and making me feel welcome. Watching the freshman grow on and off the field meant a lot to me.
And then just like that it was over. On January 7 of my senior year I woke up and headed to San Antonio for the All-American game. I’d had my last high school class, my last school lunch, my last game, my last time being at Briarwood with all the people I grew up around. I was headed to an all-star game in a place I’d never been, with people I’d never met – and from there on to college. I wouldn’t be back home for months.
Leaving Briarwood halfway through senior year made me realize even more how special of a place it is. It’s a big, Christian school where I was surrounded by people – coaches, teachers, and students – who pushed me hard because they knew I could do it. I started there in kindergarten and it’s where I made my best friends – and I was lucky enough to be together with them through the end of high school. We had all the typical school activities from dances to sports, but it was the people, the community that meant the most to me. I am especially grateful to have learned so much through them about my faith. That experience helped shape me and give me direction.
And of course, so many of my sports experiences were connected to Briarwood. As a kid, all I wanted to do was play football and wear the gold helmet – which is only for the varsity team. And when finally it happened everyone said the last day of football and school would come super fast. They were right.
I kind of took for granted how much support I had along the way, especially from my parents. Both of my parents love sports, but didn’t play anything in high school or college. My parents were always making sacrifices to help me pursue my goals. Whether it was giving me the opportunity to go to a school like Briarwood, taking me to practices and games or making sure I was eating the right stuff, they did it all for me.
Another big part of my journey is my grandfather. He’s been to every game I’ve ever played in and has seen me through it all. Every Christmas he makes a scrapbook for me with clippings from throughout the year. It’s a big inspiration just knowing how much he wants to see me succeed. He’s getting older now and hasn’t gotten to a Clemson game yet, but when I become the starter I know he will be out here.
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Recruiting was an open process for me – I went everywhere junior year from Florida to Ohio State and felt like I did a good job of looking at and thinking through a lot of different options. I was blessed to be able to choose wherever I wanted to go and in the end it would come down to what was the best fit. It became pretty clear after I started comparing everything else to Clemson where I was leaning.
Coach Swinney had explained during the recruiting process that they normally offer only one or two QBs and that year they offered Arch and me. That was an offer that held a lot of weight and something I took very seriously. One day before the Clemson spring game, Coach really put it on me. We sat down for two hours, and by the end he said to me: “CV, I don’t know what else you want to see.”
I didn’t have to think any longer about it. I’d had a connection with Coach Swinney from the very beginning. With him being from Birmingham, there was already a strong foundation – there were certain things he could talk to me about and understand that no one else could. And Clemson for me was just the perfect place. I committed just a few days later and it was an unforgettable moment for me and my parents. I’m glad Clemson fans were able to see what that was like.
Arriving on campus was exciting and I felt like I’d been well-prepared. I hopped right into workouts, got all the Nike gear, and met a bunch of great people. It was really cool to walk around campus with Peter Woods and have people recognize us and make us feel welcome. But when my parents left I’ll admit it was harder than I expected. I’m an only child, so my life with them is really all I knew at that point. And once all the new stuff stops, it gets real quickly. The hype dies down and your high school career and how many stars you have doesn’t matter. Spring ball starts, it’s cold outside, and you have to just go and compete. It was a big adjustment, but it was also a lot of fun. Now I had a chance to go and play with some dudes.
When I wasn’t playing football, I started to get into golf which was a great way to meet and get closer with my new teammates. Clemson is such an outdoors place, the courses are beautiful and there’s lakes and plenty to do when the weather gets good. It might be surprising, but in my down time I also really enjoy Legos. Not exactly the Legos you play with as kids, but the architecture sets – buildings like the White House, monuments, landmarks, stuff like that. Whenever I have some time on a weekend and some extra money, I’ll go and get a Lego set. It’s a good way to get my mind going on something other than school and football.
Over the last year, I’ve grown a lot as a player but I’ve also tried to grow as a person. I started a book of wisdom and have been collecting a whole bunch of thoughts and notes on things people have shared with me. The actual “book” is a little Clemson notebook that I saw a few members of the staff using. I thought it would be easy to get one by just asking a coach, but it turns out this was a rare book – and I needed a more thoughtful explanation. I told my coach that I knew I was going to be receiving a lot of wisdom during my time at Clemson and I planned on putting what I learned in that notebook.
A couple weeks ago I was reflecting with Coach Swinney on my life verse, Mark 8:36 which says “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” I say the verse often, but he wanted to know how much time I think about what it says. All this gear and physical stuff, becoming an NFL player, what is it all going to matter if my soul is sold only to that? When I go to heaven, I won’t have Super Bowl rings on my hand. Playing football for me then is about how I can share Christ through what I am doing. Thinking about it this way offers a different perspective. That game I’m going to play, the touchdown I’m going to throw, I’m going to use it to throw Glory into the world.
No matter what I’m doing, I want to impact people in a way that helps them accomplish their goals. Yes, I want to win multiple national championships. I want to be a Heisman trophy winner. I want to have a 4.0 GPA. I want to win a Super Bowl. If I’m doing my part, I know I’ll be able to bring others along with me. I want my roommate Noble Johnson to play in the NFL with me. If I’m making good throws and he’s catching them that is going to happen.
When it’s all said and done I want to be remembered as someone who impacted the world through his leadership. Whatever that comes to mean, we will see. But that’s at the heart of my journey and I’m going to make it happen.
