CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Almost as though it was scripted, Carolina Panthers wide receiver Hunter Renfrow on Monday made a diving catch of a ball thrown slightly behind him about 20 feet from where Clemson coach Dabo Swinney was standing.
It was Swinney, Hunter's college coach, who talked the 2019 fifth-round pick by the Las Vegas Raiders and 2021 Pro Bowl selection out of giving up football while he sat out the 2024 season with the autoimmune disease ulcerative colitis.
It was Swinney who had just said Renfrow (5-foot-10, 185 pounds) looked like a normal person in street clothes but "turned into Superman'' once he put his helmet on.
Swinney, in a one-on-one interview with ESPN before being corralled into a group interview, said Renfrow told him last year, "I'm done, I'm done. I'm not going to play anymore.''
Renfrow, speaking to ESPN on Saturday, said it was Swinney's encouragement and support afterward that convinced him to give football one more shot.
"He said, 'Why would you not [play]? You have the opportunity of a lifetime," Renfrow recalled of Swinney's pep talk. "That's part of what makes him special. Pushing to get the best out of people, just believing in you even when you don't believe in yourself.''
Swinney tried to get Renfrow to make a comeback last season when a couple of teams reached out to the receiver. He said Renfrow's focus was on getting healthy and playing for the Panthers, a team he grew up cheering for as a star athlete in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Renfrow, 29, also told his agent he only wanted to play for the Panthers because they fit everything he was looking for.
Swinney tried to explain to his former player, now a good friend with whom he takes vacations and plays golf and basketball, that's not how it works. But Renfrow was insistent, and watching him make plays during the team's first padded practice reminded Swinney of everything he saw in 2014 when the undersized receiver walked on at Clemson.
"Hunter loves to play. He loves to compete,'' said Swinney, bragging he beat Renfrow in golf last week. "It doesn't matter if it's pickleball or trying to throw a frisbee. I mean, he just always wants to compete.''
He added that watching Renfrow lose that spirit last year "was sad for me.''
"He just got in a place where he kind of lost his joy,'' Swinney said. "He's always played for the love of the game, but it all stems from being healthy. So, it's been awesome to kind of see him find that again.''
Carolina coach Dave Canales said Renfrow is playing at a level that reminds him of what he saw at Clemson, where he won two national championships in three years (2016 and 2018), and with the Raiders.
It wasn't great for Renfrow in 2022 and 2023. During that time, he once went seven straight days with a temperature over 101 degrees because of the disease that causes ulcers and inflammation in the colon and rectum.
This prevented his body from allowing him to play at a high level. He had only 61 catches for 585 yards in those combined seasons after having 103 catches for 1,038 yards in 2021.
Now he's back to making plays that give the possession receiver a chance to make a much-improved group of Carolina receivers led by 2025 first-round pick Tetairoa McMillan, 2024 first-round pick Xavier Legette and 34-year-old veteran Adam Thielen.
"He's a craftsman,'' Swinney said. "There's route runners and then there's craftsmen. And he's a craftsman. I've watch him for a long time. ... I'm just happy he's back out here. If he stays healthy, he'll do what Renfrow does.
"He gets open. And he catches it. And he makes plays. He's not a very big guy, but he plays like a 6-3 guy.''