Read the online fan message boards of any program that competes directly with Clemson on the football recruiting trail, and the refrain is laughably the same:
Clemson is done. The Tigers are on the way out. Why would any recruit waste their time on a declining program? In a word that my generation understands…Sike!
Sure, the Tigers have had consecutive seasons that to Clemson standards are considered down years. To most programs that would be a windfall. To the Tigers’ detractors, it has been the justification they need to fuel their assertions of Clemson’s illegitimacy as a program. For Coach Swinney and the Clemson program itself, it has been a wake-up call.
Clemson 2024 Recruiting Class
That alarm was answered earlier this week. It was Coach Swinney’s own version of shock and awe. Clemson received commitments from three of the best players in the class of 2024 in the span of 24 hours. Sammy Brown, the first domino to fall, is the nation’s number one ranked linebacker recruit for the class and as high as the number five overall recruit. The prized target for the Tigers, Brown’s commitment on Monday, June 5 set the college football world a buzz.
Especially because Brown plays for Jefferson High School, a mere 65 miles from downtown Athens, GA. The Bulldogs wanted him badly. Clemson got him.
Later in the same day, four-star wide receiver T.J. Moore announced his pledge to the Tigers, and less than 12 hours after that, five-star wideout Bryant Wesco from Midlothian, TX committed as well.
Three elite recruits in less than a full day, two of them ranked inside the top 30 of their class, and it propelled the Tigers’ overall composite ranking from just inside the top 20 to number eight overall.
It was Swinney’s version of shock and awe, and in its wake, there were certainly some stunned analysts if not more than a few furious Georgia fans, too.
Make the mistake of putting Swinney down for the count at your peril. The Clemson culture is still strong, and attractive, and young men want to be a part of it. Clemson still recruits at the highest level, and this past week served as another reminder, to fans, and the college football world, that the Tigers’ staying power is not going away.
Looking back at the most recent classes and the rankings back that up. Clemson landed five-star and current starting running back Will Shipley in the 2021 class, and brought in Alabaster, Alabama’s Peter Woods, one of Swinney’s highest-rated defensive line recruits ever, right out from under the Crimson Tide in the 2023 class.
Clemson’s recruiting prowess in football has not faded at all. Anyone who thinks it has is simply not paying close enough attention.
Clemson Tiger football was built on the culture envisioned by Swinney. Once he proved it could work, the recruits came in droves. It has resulted in seven ACC championships, six trips to the College Football Playoff, and two national championships.
That level of success still sells. If the Tigers’ loaded 2023 class gels along with what is shaping up to be a monster 2024 class now, then that price tag will go even higher for teams trying to compete with Clemson for the services of the nation’s best prep players. The Tigers are also named as the favorite to land several other top recruits still uncommitted, many who made their official visits during the first, monumental recruiting weekend in June.
The ball is rolling, and like 100 orange-clad players barreling down the hill at Death Valley, that moment is hard for other programs to stop.
Like Dabo Swinney loves to say, “It’s a great day to be a Clemson Tiger!” There is no time like the present, and presently Coach Swinney is working his magic on the recruiting trail once again.
Nobody who follows college football should be shocked by that anymore, but it is quite ok to still be in awe over how Swinney and the Tigers continue to keep the talent pool full.
