No looking back as Korn picks Marshall

CLEMSON — Willy Korn walked into Memorial Stadium’s WestZone Thursday to make a statement about his next college football home.

His shirt said everything reporters needed to hear.

Korn wore a dark green polo — fished from his closet — to announce what many already knew: he was transferring to Marshall following his May graduation from Clemson.

It was an unexpected end to the Clemson career of a quarterback once considered the Tigers’ next superstar, but Korn took a positive view towards this ending — and his new beginning.

“One thing me and my dad have been talking about is just metaphorically breaking off the rear-view mirror and not looking at the past,” Korn said. “I could sit here for six hours and talk about, ‘If this happened, if this happened, it would have gone better.’ I’m trying to stay out of the past, stay right here in the present and get ready to go help that program.”

Korn enrolled at Clemson as one of the highest-profile recruits in recent memory, but two major shoulder injuries in two years (a broken collarbone and a labrum injury) derailed his progress, and he lost a battle for the starting quarterback position to Kyle Parker, who sealed the position (and Korn’s Clemson fate) by leading the Tigers to a 9-5 record and ACC Atlantic Division title.

He decided to transfer in December and spoke seriously with at least three schools, which he wouldn’t name. But Marshall, which just hired West Virginia assistant Doc Holliday as its new head coach, felt like home.

The Thundering Herd will run a three wideout, one back, one tight end system with a lot of shotgun looks, very similar to what he ran at Clemson and Byrnes High School. Plus, since Holliday is new, it’s a “clean slate,” despite the presence of returning starter Brian Anderson and Landrum’s Mark Cann, who Korn will battle with in what he has been promised will be an open competition.

He’ll be at Clemson through May graduation, throwing to receivers and working with the Tigers’ strength staff as well as former Byrnes coach Bobby Bentley. Korn will be eligible immediately at Marshall with two years remaining; he’s enrolling in a graduate journalism program, something Clemson doesn’t offer, which gives him freedom to transfer under NCAA rules.

He’ll spend spring break at Marshall (where the Herd will be going through spring practice) to shadow the program and start learning the playbook, spending several more weekends there before moving for good following graduation.

Korn refused to complain about his Clemson experience, noting the lifetime friendships and positive memories he’d had in the program.

“There were things that were out of my control, back to back shoulder injuries and getting into a competition last summer with a pretty good player in Kyle Parker,” he said. “I feel like things would have been a lot different if I hadn’t gotten hurt back to back years. But things happen for a reason, and I’ve got to focus on the future.”