Clemson WR DeAndre Hopkins Baptized At Practice

It isn’t every day an ACC wide receiver gets baptized at football practice, but apparently it happens.

Junior wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins is off to a great start to this football season. He had 13 catches, finishing with 119 yards and a score in Clemson’s season-opening win over Auburn, which was a school record.

But it isn’t Hopkins football skills that made the news this week as much as a photo tweeted by wide receivers coach Jeff Scott that shows Hopkins submerged in a Rubbermaid tub. In the photo, Hopkins is surrounded by coaches and teammates and is apparently being baptized.

Deadspin reports the photo was taken last Thursday and was explained in Scott’s tweet, which notes that it wasn’t the win against Auburn that highlighted his week.

“Highlight of my week….was seeing DeAndre Hopkins get Baptized in front of his teammates on Thursday after practice,” he wrote.

Scott later tweeted about Hopkins again, referring to him by his nickname, saying, “I am so proud of Nuk and how he has matured as a player, a young man and most importantly in his faith.”

Greenville Online reports that the baptism was performed by Perry Noble, senior pastor at Anderson-based NewSpring Church. Noble is a Clemson fan and was in attendance at the Georgia Dome for Clemson’s season-opening victory over Auburn. Hopkins isn’t the first Tiger Noble has baptized either as he baptized Clemson receiver Sammy Watkins last month. It was not clear whether or not Watkins’ baptism took place at practice as well.

Clemson is a public, land grant university located in South Carolina.