CLEMSON RECRUITING

Stockstill Pleased With Recruiting Class
Rick Stockstill is in his second year as football recruiting coordinator.

Stockstill Pleased With Recruiting Class


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CLEMSON, SC -- Another recruiting year has come and gone. Clemson’s second year recruiting coordinator Rick Stockstill seems to have found what he was looking for.

"We are excited about our class,” said Stockstill. “It’s a small number because we didn’t have that many seniors this year. We think we filled our needs. We don’t think this class has to take a back seat to anybody."

Stockstill on:

Keith Kelly hurt his thigh a little bit earlier this season, so he didn’t play

but probably half the year. But he ended up with probably 1500 to 1600

yards. He is a guy that brings great speed. He’s a powerful running

back. He’s a big guy probably six foot and 205 pounds. He runs with

strength and with power. He has got some speed that will help us get

outside on the edges. He’s a little bit like Raymond Priester in the sense

that he is strong and he can hammer inside, but he is also different in that

when he gets outside he has the ability to take it all the way with his

speed. He is a track guy. We are very excited about him.

Terrence Huey is the other running back. He is different than Keith. He’s

smaller. He gives us kind of the scat back type guy that can catch the ball

out of the back field. He runs and changes direction very well. So we are happy

with our running back position.

Derrick Hamilton here in state was a kid that not a lot of people knew about

him early in the recruiting process. He returned 16 kicks for touchdowns this

year. Eight of them were called back for penalties. He’s a phenomenal

athlete. He’s a 6-4 guy who is probably 200 pounds that can run. He’s got

really good hands. He’s just a guy who can bring a lot of excitement to our

offense and I really appreciate him and what he stands for. He committed to

us early and stuck by that commitment. He did not take any visits. We are

excited about Derrick. I think he will be a really good player for us. He’s got

a chance to help us this year.

Ronnie Thomas, out of Florida, is an inside type receiver. He catches the

ball really well. He’s got some good "make- you- miss" ability and was Willie

Simmon’s teammate in high school.

Todd McClinton is a big guy that can run and catch. He played tailback and

tight end. He brings a lot of athletic ability to the table. Todd is a guy

who, you can flex him out as a slot receiver. He can also be a tight end. He’s just

a phenomenal athlete for

his size.

We recruited Brian Carr first of all as a quarterback. We told him we would

give him a shot at quarterback. If things did not work out there we might

look at him as a safety position guy. He is a good athlete that can run. We

will give him a shot at quarterback and see how it unfolds. But he is a good

athlete that can play some other positions.

Derrick Brantley - Anytime you bring in a guy who y who can go through spring practice, it not only gives him an advantage, but it gives us

an advantage as far as evaluating him and seeing what he can do. Derrick is a junior college guy and we really liked him out of high school. We are glad to have him back in our program. We got three

years with him. Derrick is a good player and the rest is up to him, on how

hard he works and competes. But we are expecting big things out of Derrick.

Donnell Washington will give us some big strength and size inside. He is out

of Battery Creek High School. He’s a good pass rusher. He’s a guy who we think

in time will develop into a top notch player.

JR Grant is more of an edge player and defensive end type guy. We think he can

put on 20 to 25 pounds and be really a big force off the edge. We think both

Donnell and JR will help us this year and hopefully see good things from them

in the future.

Brandon Jamison is a typical Clemson linebacker in the fact that he can run.

He’s got great speed and great change of direction. He’s also got good size to

him. There is nothing in my opinion that will keep Brandon from being a great

linebacker here at Clemson and continuing on the tradition of linebackers at

Clemson.

Ryan Hemby is from here instate at Orangeburg-Wilkinson. He’s your true

cover guy. He’s a guy who is strictly a corner. He’s a guy who had great

coaching in high school from Tommy Brown. His brother was a defensive back in

college, so he has been well coached in the defensive back skills. He will

come in here and not miss a beat. I think he’s a guy that can

come in here and compete early.

Ronnie Delusme is a lot different that Ryan (Hemby), where Ronnie is a bigger guy who

can also be a safety if we need help there. Ronnie is a guy, who the instate schools in Florida recruited.

We are excited about Aaron Hunt. He’s a guy that we evaluated for a long time and we think he’s a good kicker. When he gets here we will find out, but we think he is a good, solid kicker.

Rounding out the class is Cedric Johnson, an offensive lineman from

Thomasville,Georgia. At 6-3, 315 lbs., he is an excellent athlete with good quickness.

Going Head to Head against Florida State:

My personal opinion is that since I have been at Clemson, we have always gone

head to head with Florida State, Florida, Georgia, Auburn and all the major

powers in the South. We have always done that. We have won some of those

battles and we have lost some of them. Our expectations at Clemson are that

we want to be able to compete for the National Championship. If you are going

to do that then you have to recruit the same type of player that Florida

State, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, and everybody else recruits. When you get

in those type of battles, you are going to win some of them

and you are going to lose some of them. It just all depends where the kid is

from, what he is thinking, or what he is looking for. I’m proud of our effort

this year. I thought we evaluated the right kids. I thought we got in the

fight with the right kids. We won some of the battles and we lost some. Just

for me personally I am disappointed because I was in a couple of those

late battles and we didn’t close the deals. We didn’t get it done. I’m

disappointed in myself but not with Clemson.

Committing Early:

If you look back to how excited the Clemson people were about Keith Kelly,

Ryan Hemby, Derrick Hamilton, and Ronnie Thomas, all these guys committed to

us in December and we were very excited about those kids then. It’s only

natural, and I do it as a coach, when someone commits, you put him there, and

then you go attack the next guy. You kind of forget about those guys. Those

are special people who we would loved to have them in December and we would

love to have them now. Clemson does not have to take a back seat to anybody.

This recruiting class is very good. The numbers are not high because we didn’t

have very many seniors. But I am extremely proud of these kids. They stuck to

it. There’s not one kid that committed to us in December, that visited

somebody else.

Targets for 2001

We will have 19 seniors graduating on scholarship. So that gives you 19 offers there, and the 2 that we are under this year. So right now we are looking at

20, 21 or 22 member class for next year. We will lose four wide receivers, so

definitely wide receivers will be a big priority for us next year. We've got

to sign a quarterback and another tailback. Offensive lineman

will be a key because we lose John McDermott and Theo Mougros, so we will need

a couple of people there. We lose 3 people up front on the defensive side. We

lose a couple of people in the secondary. We need to fulfill the needs where

we graduate people, and then just fill in where we might have missed on people

this year.

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