Recruiting update: After June commits, what's next for Clemson's 2022 class?

Travis Shaw has had a dynamic recruiting process and Clemson hopes to stay in the mix.

by TigerNet Staff - Tue Jun 29 08:00:07 GMT-04:00 2021

Clemson Paw has been doing an outstanding job on our board with recruiting updates over the last several weeks, and with that in mind, we decided to give him a larger platform for a weekly recruiting inside look.

That’s a wrap: last weekend concluded visits in June, and June was by far the most hectic month in recruiting history. Once the 14-month dead period was lifted, recruits from across the country converged on Tiger Town to camp and visit. I warned that June may not have the number of commitments that many expected. June was when prospects were going to visit, while July was when prospects were going to evaluate and decide, and visits are allowed for one week in July beginning on July 25th. Even with that, Clemson was able to score four commits and double the size of the class that they had prior to June. While June was a fruitful month, July is still set to be in decision mode for many of Clemson’s top targets. We will discuss some of those prospects soon; however, let’s begin with Clemson’s latest commitment.

-I had the last section of this report ready with Jihaad Campbell as the final note last week (PS, I do think that the new last section will not have any drop off in quality though). Early Friday I got wind that he would be moving his commitment timeline up after he did not show up for his scheduled Texas A&M official. I subsequently made a post on the board saying “Safety commit Sherrod Covil and CB Toriano Pride shared the honors of being the last update in the inaugural recruiting stories, while Campbell’s teammate Keon Sabb was chosen last week. The precedent has been set for what that means…” A little hint as to what was to come in the weekend.

Campbell was one of Clemson’s first DE offers when they were dispensed last summer, even when he was a relative no-name with a limited offer sheet. The Clemson offer marked the first milestone in his recruitment, and the last, I might add. It seemed it was always Clemson for Campbell -- other suitors came knocking notably Ohio State, Georgia, and Florida; however, Clemson held the cards throughout. This development will only help Clemson with Campbell’s close friends and teammates at IMG, Keon Sabb and Daylen Everette. Although if you read last week’s report, you have reason to feel confident in Sabb, and I have gathered more intel this week to confirm that notion. If Sabb were to commit to Clemson some time in July, and that is still an if, would the combination of Campbell and Sabb be enough to sway Everette? Clemson certainly hopes so. It would add more connections in their favor, but UNC, mainly through location, has its fair share of advantages as well. Everette also took a recent official visit to Florida State, while his UNC official was this past weekend. The needle points to UNC right now, Clemson may have the ingredients to pull an upset, however.

- I wanted to discuss an interesting topic during this section of our report: recruiting is a very complex subject that is far too often viewed as a one-dimensional game. Generally speaking, there are always multiple factors that go into a recruit's decision -- location, relationships, etc. Each recruit has different factors that are most important to them. If relationships were always the most important factor, more recruits would go to smaller schools because often the relationship is just as strong with a coach from a smaller school as that of a coach from a perennial championship team, while if location was always the most important factor, Justyn Ross and Jackson Carman would never have played for Clemson. It’s a juggling act for all involved. All that to say, I thought it would be neat to do a case study on a couple of Clemson’s targets for this class:

Let’s start with Mauldin cornerback Jeadyn Lukus. Lukus is a 5-star right in Clemson’s backyard, Mauldin, so you may wonder why have the Tigers already not locked Lukus up. That would only be taking the location factor into consideration -- remember I said there were multiple factors at play. Clemson’s main competition throughout the entire process has been UNC. Mack Brown would clearly love to be able to land Lukus, as payback for the times Clemson has been able to land the top talent in North Carolina. The mere fact that Lukus is still in decision mode shows the drastic development in UNC recruiting in recent years. Brown takes a very hands-on approach to recruiting, a philosophy that he expects his staff to follow as well. No one takes that approach to heart more than Tar Heels CB coach Dre Bly. Bly is quickly becoming a name to be reckoned with on the recruiting trail, through his connections in Virginia and ability to develop a relationship with players.

With Brown and Bly, the recruiting does not stop with just the specific player, nor his family, they believe the more voices you have your side in a prospect’s ear the better. A tactic Bly has implemented in the fullest with Lukus. On that note, one would be naive to believe that UNC pushing Lukus' teammate at Mauldin, Deuce Caldwell, for a commitment -- and getting it -- is unrelated to their pursuit of Lukus. While UNC would like to get Caldwell in the fold in case, Clemson finds that they have room later in the cycle and decides to circle back with an offer. It's also not a stretch to imagine the two recruitments are related in the eyes of UNC. The two recruitments are not dependent on each other, but if you are UNC, you hope the commitment of Caldwell is merely an additional chip in your basket with your pursuit of Lukus. Clearly more at play than meets the eye. As I stated over two weeks ago, Lukus is expected to attend Clemson's All In Cookout in July. A good sign for the Tigers is if he follows through.

-That brings us to 4-star Louisana running back Trevor Etienne, obviously the brother of multi-Clemson-record-holder Travis Etienne. A myriad of factors went into the statement I am about to make: If you would have asked me two months ago if Clemson would have landed Trevor, I would have said "No." Now I am on the verge of saying, "Yes." So, what changed in two months for me to change my tone? The truth is the numbers changed.

Other than Clemson, the three teams that Trevor is considering are LSU, UGA, and Alabama. Let’s start with LSU. For quite some time LSU has had two in-state backs higher than Trevor on their board in TreVonte’ Citizen and Le’veon Moss, both of whom seemed LSU leans for quite some time. However, in a surprising twist, after a visit to Alabama, Moss committed to the Tide, their second RB commit after Emmanuel Henderson, most likely eliminating the Tide from the Trevor sweepstakes. After that, LSU moved on to RB Damari Alston, and they appear to be in a good position at the moment as well. Trevor did camp with LSU and I believe that he would now be a take as a result of that workout, but the pecking order remains unclear. That leaves UGA, and they picked up a commitment from RB Jordan James a couple of months ago and are now simply waiting on the commitment from Branson Robinson, who did visit Alabama recently but Robinson has favored UGA for quite some time -- as I have stated on multiple occasions.

The numbers leave all three of those other suitors with the possibility of two running back commits, and Clemson with none. The longer the process with Etienne drags on, the higher the odds he and Clemson become fits in my estimation. They say home is where the heart is -- and we will see if Etienne just needed to see what was on the market before calling Clemson home.

-That leaves 5-star DT/DE Gabe Dindy. I spoke on Dindy in last week’s report but the intricacies at work in his recruitment warrant inclusion in this section as well. First, both of Dindy’s parents went to Oklahoma, so the family obviously has ties to OU. Dindy’s father is also a pastor. Clemson resonated with the family for obvious reasons on that note as the faith-based and cultured-centered program is certainly of interest. However, Dindy’s father just took a position as a pastor at a school in College Station, Texas, where the campus of Texas A&M is located, one of Dindy’s top schools. I will say that schools were aware of this move since January. The move from Florida to Texas moves Dindy closer to both of those schools while moving him further from Clemson. However, I stated last week,and still believe that OU is the team to beat. A&M may have helped themselves with the move, but to land Dindy, a team is going to have to pass OU. He has officials to Alabama and OU scheduled for the Fall. Last week, I also mentioned that Dindy would be visiting in July, again I stated in last week’s report, the first to report the exact date. You know I love to give y’all the nuggets, that date will be July 25th, a date that will be of importance for the grills in the lovely town of Clemson (ahem…).

-The predictable panic ensued on the Tiger Board on Friday night when another site predicted that UNC would land 5-star Grimsley N.C DT Travis Shaw. I have warned for over two months that Shaw was in no way a Clemson lean, and reentered that point last week with the advice that prediction tools from other sites do not always tell the full story. See the factors mentioned in the above recruitments. I can say that prior to visits, UGA was running third while Clemson and UNC were the top two. On his official visit to UGA, they viewed Clemson as the biggest threat and targeted the Tigers repeatedly. Hey, that’s recruiting. How much that swayed Shaw, I do not know. I do know that Shaw was very, very complimentary to the staff about Clemson’s chances and their positioning in the recruitment at the Elite Retreat this month. However, I again do not have knowledge of how Shaw has spoken to the other two coaching staffs involved.

UNC rolled out the blue carpet this weekend for Shaw’s official visit, to the point that he was met at the airport by former UNC basketball coach Roy Williams. I expressed the sentiment last week that Shaw was eyeing moving his commitment timeline up, whether that development comes to fruition remains to be seen, but I would lean toward no at this moment, but this is and has been a very fluid recruitment. A delayed timeline favors Clemson, but if an early decision were to occur and Clemson was not the choice, one would be foolish to assume Shaw’s recruitment was finished. It would be anything but that.

-On my board post Friday, I mentioned two running backs for the class of ‘23. I reviewed the visit of recently offered Justice Haynes from earlier in June and previewed the visit from 5-star RB Richard Young, where Young left Clemson with an offer. I said this on Friday with regard to Clemson’s chances with Haynes “His father, Vernon, played at UGA so they obviously have connections. However, here’s to thinking that this could be the first case where we see the acquisition of CJ (Spiller) to the coaching staff show rewards on the recruiting trail. Clemson is in this one.” That sentiment has not changed since Friday, and I think that Clemson will give UGA all they can handle.

Young left Friday with an offer, and the returns are relevant enough that they warranted the inclusion of this entire section. I will note that this recruitment has the potential to profile into a Branson Robinson scenario where Alabama and UGA are heavily involved, as they are with most 5-star RBs. However, Clemson impressed Young to the point that he should be at a game in the fall. You have to shoot your shot at a minimum with Young.

-Before we get to the final section some great news for the class of ‘22 has just been relayed to me, literally just as I am about to finish this. It is too early to release that information or even hint at what it could be, but just be aware that July is shaping up much like June did. We should be able to discuss this next week.

-As I stated earlier in the report, this last section was slated for the recent DE commit Campbell. As such, adjustments had to be made once he committed on Sunday. I decided to keep it in the defensive end family and Alabama 5 star DE Jeremiah Alexander gets the honor of being the final item this week.

I had an entire section on Alexander in last week's update where I mentioned that he stated in a local TV station interview, with WBRC, that he was eyeing a decision prior to his senior season. In last week’s update, I stated “Whether he decides now or later, Clemson is squarely involved, and currently leading, for yet another 5-star in the state of Alabama it is now just about closing.” After gathering more intel last week, that statement was further cemented in my estimation. While it may seem like a stretch to land a 5 star out of the state of Alabama, Justyn Ross, EJ Williams, and others say "Hello." Who knows, pretty soon we may be able to add Alexander to that list as well.

Have a great week Tigernation!