Meet the only player to suit up for Shane Beamer at USC ... and Dabo at Clemson

Last year, Jackson Hall became the answer to one heck of a trivia question.

Hall is a 20-year-old walk-on offensive lineman from a small town in South Carolina, and over his career he’s thrived in a behind-the-scenes role. Hall works the scout team. He does whatever is asked of him. No attention or recognition? Fine by him.

But he understands the Clemson-South Carolina rivalry, and he understands his unique place in Palmetto Bowl history … even if it comes with an asterisk.

By virtue of his under-the-radar transfer from South Carolina to Clemson in 2023, Hall is the first — and, to date, the only — player to appear on a Shane Beamer-coached roster at USC and a Dabo Swinney-coached roster at Clemson.

He played under Beamer at South Carolina in 2022.

He’s played under Swinney at Clemson since 2023.

And heading into one of the biggest Palmetto Bowls in series history this Saturday, Hall is happy to talk about his journey, with one thing he wants to emphasize above all else. Despite his current allegiance, there’s no bad blood between him and USC.

“None at all,” Hall told The State on Tuesday from Clemson’s practice facility.

A walk-on’s journey

Hall’s whole family is chock full of Clemson fans, and he grew up in Craytonville, South Carolina, loyally following the Tigers. He even attended their 2017 and 2019 national championship game wins in person.

Then Hall developed into an all-state offensive lineman at Belton-Honea Path High School, good enough to earn FCS offers and a handful of preferred walk-on spots.

As he worked through the annual prospect camp circuit that dominates most recruits’ summers, Hall got plenty of facetime with Clemson but didn’t gain much traction with their coaches. Someone who did notice him?

Former South Carolina offensive line coach Greg Adkins.

At that point, Hall said, “I kind of took the fan side out of it.”

It wasn’t particularly hard. Sure, he was a Clemson fan. But plenty of recruits swap allegiances. Plus, this was a preferred walk-on opportunity at an SEC school. He didn’t have to leave the state. He was just two hours away from home.

“In that moment, South Carolina was my best option,” Hall said.

He committed to Gamecocks in July 2021, signed in December and enrolled early in January, right in time for Beamer’s breakthrough second season at South Carolina.

When South Carolina upset Clemson in Death Valley two years ago as a 14-point underdog, Hall was there … in a far different capacity. As a walk-on, he wasn’t part of the team’s formal travel roster and wasn’t on the sidelines. But he was in the stands of Memorial Stadium with a friend, cheering hard for the Gamecocks as they knocked Clemson out of College Football Playoff contention.

During the 2022 season, Hall did not appear in a game for South Carolina but had a ball working on the scout team, primarily as a guard.

“I’m grateful for every moment I got to spend down there,” Hall said.

As much as he enjoyed working with South Carolina’s strength and conditioning staff and Gamecocks offensive line coaches Adkins and Lonnie Teasley, it didn’t last. Hall announced in late April 2023 he was entering the transfer portal.

“I just thought that was the best decision for me and my career,” Hall said. “It wasn’t anything against anybody at South Carolina. Again, I’m grateful for my time there.”

Clemson, at that point, wasn’t on his radar. Once in the portal, he talked with a mix of FCS schools and Group of Five schools, including The Citadel and Georgia State. Ultimately, Hall decided to bring academics into the equation.

So he applied to his one-time dream school, was accepted and attended a Clemson football walk-on tryout in August 2023, fully at peace with his situation.

“If I didn’t make it, then I was still gonna have a great degree,” Hall said.

His intuition following the tryout was that he’d nailed it. He was right. Clemson director of player personnel Mike Dooley called Hall shortly afterward.

He had a spot, if he wanted it.

Hall was promptly added to Clemson’s 2023 roster with little fanfare and has spent the past two seasons living the dream and soaking up football and life tips from Swinney and offensive coaches Thomas Austin (2023) and Matt Luke (2024).

“Personally, I’ve loved every second of it,” Hall said of Clemson. “It’s truly a family atmosphere up here. Everybody looks out for everyone. I feel like I’ve been developed as a man and as a football player since being here.”

Trading places

In switching sides, Hall has entered rare air in the history of the rivalry.

Clemson and USC have been playing each other in football since 1896, but the list of players to suit up for both programs is, understandably, quite limited.

The most popular and prominent instance was running back Tavien Feaster, a star in-state recruit and Mr. Football winner who played three years at Clemson from 2016-18 before finishing up his college career at South Carolina in 2019.

Others to do it include Cary Cox, an offensive lineman who lettered at USC in 1943, served his country in World War II, enrolled at Clemson after the war and was a football team captain in 1947. Fullback Paul Williams appeared for Clemson in 1978 and South Carolina in 1980 and was the most recent to do so until Feaster.

Hall (6-foot-3, 295 pounds) has appeared in two games for Clemson this year, playing three snaps against App State and seven snaps against The Citadel.

Since he never formally appeared in a game for USC, though, he’s more in the historical range of Josh Belk, a defensive lineman who enrolled at Clemson in 2018 but never appeared in a game, transferred to South Carolina and played a season.

But, Hall is the first and only player to date to execute such a swap and say he’s played under Beamer and Swinney, the two highest paid people in the state and the current faces of their respective schools and football programs (which have a combined 17 wins entering Saturday) since Beamer’s hiring in late 2020.

“They both care about you as not only a player, but as a person,” Hall said. “And they both want to try to help you to be the best you can be. That’s the biggest similarity.”

On Saturday, No. 12 Clemson and No. 15 South Carolina will meet in Memorial Stadium for the first time since USC’s upset win there in 2022.

Hall will be in Death Valley again, too, but he’ll be in a Clemson jersey on the sideline this time and rooting for a far different result.

“I’m looking forward to getting out there and hopefully getting a win,” Hall said.

But there’s one more twist in the saga. Hall is majoring in political science at Clemson. After this fall, he’s done with football and will shift his focus to law school.

Hall is casting a wide net in terms of applications, but one of the postgraduate schools in his sights is … the University of South Carolina’s Joseph F. Rice School of Law.

Wait, really? Hall grinned.

“It’s wherever I can get into,” he said. “But I wouldn’t mind having to go back down the road.”