#68 Days Until Pitt Football: T.J. Clemmings

If you spend any time on Twitter, you no doubt have seen people posting certain Pitt players wearing uniform numbers that correspond with the number of days left until the football season kicks off. Jim did it last year and this year, Pat Narduzzi has been doing it.

I know we have a lot of younger readers here and also some folks that may not have spent their entire lives following Pitt sports. For that reason, I thought it would be cool to not only do the countdown here, but also give a brief writeup on the player to potentially help fans connect a little more with some of the all-time greats.

Quick disclaimer - this isn't necessarily about picking the best player for each number. Not only is that disputable in many instances, but it's not really the point of the exercise. So don't be offended if your favorite player doesn't make the list here. I'll probably mirror Narduzzi's list for the most part but may go off the board in a few instances.

These will also be brief, folks. It's the offseason and we all use this time to wind down a bit. These won't be theses or anything, but we'll cobble together a few facts for each guy.

Finally, feel free to add on to a player's accomplishments in the comments section. Some I'll leave out due to space/time and some I may not even know about. But this will be a good learning exercise for all of us.

Continuing our countdown today is offensive lineman T.J. Clemmings.

As a top recruit, Clemmings' career got off to a bit of a slow start. As the top overall recruit in New Jersey and the nation's No. 38 overall player (as rated by Scout), he was expected to make an immediate impact on the Panthers' defensive line right away. He did play as a true freshman but did so as a backup with only three tackles to his credit. After redshirting in 2011, he made a slightly bigger impact as a sophomore, starting six games, recording 20 tackles.

Clemmings' career didn't really take off until Paul Chryst and company moved him to the offensive line at the end of 2012. In 2013, he started every game at right tackle and repeated that feat in 2014. As a senior, he was named as a second-team All-American and was first-team All-ACC. The move to the offensive line paid off in that it helped him go from an average defensive player to a standout on offense.

He was expected to be a potential first-round NFL Draft pick but dropped to the fourth round after reports of a foot injury broke. The Minnesota Vikings took a chance on him that has seemingly paid off - he started every single game for the team last season.

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