Let the summer fireworks begin: Swinney hosts top recruits this weekend

5-star Charlotte offensive tackle David Sanders is one of the headliners set to visit this weekend.

David Hood · Senior Writer · Wednesday, May 29 2024

Summer fun is just ahead.

Today is the last quiet day for a while. A major recruiting official visit weekend kicks off Friday, setting the stage for head coach Dabo Swinney’s high school camps next week. Clemson Baseball is hosting a regional starting Friday, and interviews are on Thursday.

I’ll post some regional capsules later, but for right now let’s focus on football and recruiting. Last June’s recruiting paid big dividends for the Tigers – that first official visit weekend led to Clemson landing verbal commitments from linebacker Sammy Brown, wide receiver Bryant Wesco, wide receiver TJ Moore, defensive end Darien Mayo and safety Ricardo Jones.

Offensive lineman Ronan O’Connell announced his commitment on July 4th to further cement the start of the summer recruiting push.

And in even better news, the Tigers were able to hold on to all six of those commitments.

The official visit weekend starts Friday and continues all weekend, and all 11 of Clemson’s current commitments will be in attendance. Those commitments are corner Tae Harris, defensive lineman Isaiah Campbell, offensive lineman Brayden Jacobs, defensive end Ari Watford, athlete Marquise Henderson, defensive lineman Amare Adams, wide receiver Carleton Preston, tight end Logan Brooking, offensive lineman Easton Ware, running back Gideon Davidson, and quarterback Blake Hebert.

We will run a list later this week with all of the visitors, but for right now, let’s focus on a few of the top names. And none of those names looms any bigger than 5-star offensive lineman David Sanders.

Sanders has called Clemson his dream school, but he’s doing his due diligence. He’s been to Georgia, Tennessee, and Ohio State. He visited Nebraska on May 10 and South Carolina on April 19.

Clemson gets the first of four official visits this month to what are considered his top four schools—he heads back to Georgia (June 7), Tennessee (June 14), and Ohio State (June 21). What is going to happen? No one knows at this point, but a commitment from Sanders would be a great way for the Tigers to start the summer.

Offensive line coach Matt Luke might be the Tigers’ ace in the hole. Over the past several seasons, teams have recruited against Clemson’s history of putting linemen in the NFL, used Robbie Caldwell’s age to point out that Caldwell might not be around much longer, and then Thomas Austin’s inexperience and lack of track record.

Luke has indicated he has no plans to jump back into the head coaching ranks and that he’s found a home in Clemson, and his track record speaks for itself. In his two seasons in Athens working for Kirby Smart and Georgia, players under Luke’s tutelage accounted for three All-SEC honors and four NFL Draft selections.

Prior to his stint at Georgia, he mentored 42 all-conference selections and 27 NFL Draft picks from 1999 to 2019, including first-round selections Laremy Tunsil and Laken Tomlinson.

That’s pretty good, right?

Clemson also gets one last shot at talented edge rusher Bryce Davis. The 4-star out of Greensboro (NC) Grimsley is set to announce a decision on July 20 with the finalists being Clemson, Georgia and Duke.

Davis will visit each of those schools, but Georgia is currently considered the frontrunner. According to the 247Sports Composite, he is rated as the No. 6 defensive lineman, the No. 4 player in his state, and the No. 47 overall recruit in the 2025 class.

We will delve deeper into the entire list this week. But next week’s camps are also a big deal as the coaching staff begins to hand out those 2026 offers.

There will be two one-day camps, on June 4th and 5th, and the three-day camp is June 7th-9th. That puts all the action into one jam-packed week going Tuesday and Wednesday and then Friday through Sunday. The hope is that there won’t be a lot of parking because Clemson is playing in a Super Regional.

All in all, a great start to summer awaits.