David Sanders Jr., the No. 2 overall prospect and No. 1 offensive tackle in the class of 2025, announced his top four schools this past Sunday.
The finalists for the North Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year are Georgia, Ohio State, Tennessee, and Nebraska, which he will pick from on August 17.
While Clemson failed to make the cut, it begs the question, why?
After leading his high school to a top 50 ranking nationally and as recruitment heated up this past spring, Clemson appeared to be the favorite of his choices and was firmly in the hunt for the five-star lineman.
Tom Loy, a 247Sports Notre Dame insider, crystal-balled Sanders Jr to Clemson in March of this year. While it may seem like a reach to use this as evidence of where Sanders Jr was leaning, Loy has been correct on 114 out of 117 crystal ball predictions (97.44%) for the class of 2025, proving himself as a reliable source and indicator.
The dominant prospect even vocalized that Clemson was his dream school to play at one day growing up as a kid, making it even more confusing for fans when he chose to leave the school out of his top four.
Ultimately, it seems the main reason Clemson was left out of the top finalists was due to NIL funds. While it’s just skepticism, it’s the only plausible reason. Especially when Clemson, a family-oriented and traditional program, is competing against Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio State, and Nebraska, all very well-funded schools that are known to throw a lot of money out to recruits.
Despite the harsh fact that the Tigers could not get such a highly touted prospect, Clemson Football is in a far improved position than they were at this time last year when it came to its offensive line recruitment in the 2025 cycle.
Thanks to newly hired offensive line coach Matt Luke, Clemson has secured three other offensive line commits. The commits include four-star Brayden Jacobs, three-star Easton Ware, and three-star Rowan Byrne. Nevertheless, Luke and Clemson will still have more work to do to round out the offensive line.
It will be interesting to watch where Clemson goes in the future after losing out on Sanders. Although he would have been a huge addition, the team must change course and find an alternative means of bolstering their offensive line.
