MONDAY INSIDER
By: Paul Strelow
1. It’s go time.
The NCAA’s football postseason recruiting contact period began just one week ago. But there’s only one week remaining, as the doors shut Sunday night in advance of the early signing period commencing the following Wednesday.
Clemson, as you know, instead was going through ACC Championship game preparations last week – which kept coaches tied up until Thursday evening after the team’s final on-campus practice.
So they have one week to tie up the remaining loose ends before the Dec. 18-20 harvest.
To their benefit, much of their work was already done on the front end.
But there also remain a couple of big boxes left to check, and we’ll expound upon those as we go.
Dabo Swinney isn’t necessarily a pound-the-pavement recruiter at this point in his career, nor are we saying he should be given his responsibilities, priorities, profile and recruiting leverage.
Yet we guarantee he’s going to be a busy man on the trail this week, jet-setting for in-home visits morning, day and night as Clemson puts the finishing touches on the commitments already gathered as well as attempting to close on its handful of remaining targets.
The Tigers then have an official visit weekend to host before turning prep to their early signing day production.
The wheels, as we laid out last week, began rolling Thursday …
2. As you’ve seen, Clemson's staff has dabbled the last month or so in reaching out to various defensive backs. One previous one – Jacksonville (Fla.) Bartram Trail’s Tre’Vez Johnson, a Florida commitment – elicited an offer. Others such as Tucker (Ga.) four-star Isaiah Dunson or Scottsdale (Ariz.) Saguaro four-star Jacobe Covington, we’ve framed it simply as the Tigers opening a line of communication as a contingency measure.
Lakleland (Fla.) cornerback and Clemson target Kendall Dennis.
To this point, we have said the Tigers were creating options in case a scholarship spot opened late in the class.
We can now disclose that Clemson will add another cornerback this cycle.
Scholarship numbers at the position next season project to be dangerously low, and we anticipate there to be attrition beyond the expected NFL Draft departure of junior standout A.J. Terrell.
3. Which leads us to the prospect we introduced to the conversation Thursday morning.
Lakeland (Fla.) corner Kendall Dennis announced an offer from Clemson on Friday night after corners coach Mike Reed traveled to his school earlier in the day.
We foreshadowed the offer in reporting the day before that Dennis had already arranged an official visit that comes this weekend.
Dennis (5-11, 172) has been courted heaviest down the stretch by Oklahoma, Nebraska, Auburn and to a lesser degree, Florida State’s lame-duck staff.
Oklahoma hosted him for an official visit two weeks ago. Per our intel, the Sooners have him as a contingency plan should they miss on Aldine (Texas) MacArthur four-star Joshua Eaton – for whom they’re the heavy favorite – and Raytown (Mo.) four-star Dontae Manning, a decommitment now looking around.
Nebraska had him in for an official visit the week before and has him as a priority, while Auburn attracted him for a couple of visits before the season but have had him on the backburner as they chase more immediate junior college options.
FSU was set to bring him in for an official visit before Willie Taggart was fired, while Tennessee likewise tried to score an official visit but was denied.
We’ve been asked about Florida interest in light of the Gators’ track record at his school. Our understanding is they just took to others more early in the process. Dennis, who transferred to Lakeland from local rival Kathleen during the offseason, didn’t really hit radars until early last spring. Florida took a Texas corner in April and closed out another Texas four-star corner in July, then cashed in on relationships to bring in four-star Ethan Pouncey a week ago.
Dennis, of course, is a teammate of Clemson five-star running back commitment Demarkcus Bowman and one-time receiver target Arian Smith.
We previously reported Clemson would be placing a premium on speed should it pursue another candidate.
Dennis posted a 4.40 40 at the Opening regional last February. Check.
He fits the profile of a field corner Clemson could also use to cover the slot if desired.
Dennis declared by social media Sunday night that he would now be committing this month. As we expressed on the WestZone message board, these things have a way of changing depending on who owns the leverage.
The Tigers hold the cards going down the stretch.
But hold tight on the italics. There are other moving pieces involved.
4. Dennis isn’t the only Sunshine State prospect in line to spend the final weekend in Clemson before the early signing period.
The Tigers also get the presumed final at-bat for Miami (Fla.) Columbus four-star receiver Xzavier Henderson.
Henderson (6-3, 185), who climbed to No. 101 nationally in last week’s rankings update, plans to announce a commitment at the Jan. 4 All-America Bowl in San Antonio, Texas. He has expressed uncertainty about whether he will sign this month or February.
Alabama and UGA drew official visits earlier in the season. We believe Henderson likes the Tide more, while the Dawgs felt more confident in their standing.
Either way, Florida has stood as the team to beat … unless Clemson turned the heat back up.
Which, as we reported more than a week ago, it has.
Henderson took his Florida official visit a week ago; he’s been to Gainesville numerous times this season to see his brother C.J., a Gators starting corner.
On Friday, C.J. announced his intent to enter the NFL Draft early, interestingly bypassing Florida’s bowl game as well. His departure was expected and he’s been billed as a potential first-rounder, although it’s widely accepted that C.J. didn’t have the caliber of season many predicted.
As far as Xzavier’s recruitment goes, Florida has always benefitted from the relationships that having his brother have afforded. But he was never going to go to Gainesville just because his brother did.
We’ve witnessed a pattern of business decisions from C.J., and let’s just say that underlines why WRU’s push should have his competitors’ attention.
Miami (Fla.) 4-star Xzavier Henderson's recruitment is winding down with a visit to Clemson on deck.
Not a bad time to have Tee Higgins register his most monster of statistical performances.
But now we’re in a holding pattern.
We wrote a piece last week expressing that Clemson’s commitment list doesn’t stand to be impacted by the Tigers presumptively finally losing a coordinator to a head-coaching job elsewhere. The remaining uncommitted targets, though, were a different matter, we said.
Our Larry Williams reported Sunday that co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott is strongly in play for the USF job and in good shape to land it.
Scott is Clemson’s lead recruiter on Henderson, and we’re not sure this is a situation that could just be handed over to another assistant and the Tigers pick up where they left off.
A lot here rides on the decision and timing of USF’s search.
We can tell you that Clemson is already ahead of the game with plans to address the situation with Henderson as well as the Tigers’ two receiver commitments: Phenix City (Ala.) Central four-star receiver E.J. Williams and Clearwater (Fla.) Academy International high-three star Ajou Ajou.
5. Dennis was the first of two new targets we brought to light last week – the other of which we’re already position to close the book, as we like to say.
Birmingham (Ala.) Briarwood Christian three-star offensive lineman Trent Howard announced his commitment Friday night via social media.
Howard (6-4, 285) committed to Georgia Tech in June but withdrew his pledge Thursday evening.
We immediately broke the news thereafter that Clemson was the cause for his move, as Dabo Swinney offered the son of his former Alabama national championship teammate earlier in the week.
Howard visited Clemson in the spring but wasn’t on the radar as far as an offer at that time.
Miami, Boston College, Louisville, Wake Forest and Mississippi State offered in the spring. Auburn and FSU conveyed interest.
Howard played tackle as a senior, but he was recruited as an interior offensive lineman for Clemson. He could project to either guard or center.
As we indicated, this development did not make Georgia Tech happy; we were told the Yellow Jackets viewed him as their best offensive line commitment.
6. Why did this move come about?
As with cornerback, we can tell you that Clemson's staff has reason to anticipate further attrition on the offensive line this offseason.
Bringing in six offensive linemen in one class isn’t necessarily the ideal when large position hauls create the possibility for numbers difficulties down the line.
This observer has always advocated that if you’re going to carry more at a specific position, offensive line should be it because of the greater challenge in predicting their futures. There tends to be more misses at the position, plus a higher volume of injuries that can quickly rob depth.
Clemson has kept a comparatively baseline number at that position through Dabo Swinney’s tenure – roughly 15 – in part because of minimal turnover and line coach Robbie Caldwell’s track record for efficiently maximizing what they have.
Yet Swinney signed off on the offensive line getting the vacating scholarship simply on need.
If everybody returned, Clemson would enter next season with just 14 scholarship linemen.
7. As referenced, the coaches were freed Thursday night to hit the recruiting trail before reconvening with the team in Charlotte.
One of the most important stops was just a short drive from the team hotel.
Clemson has further strengthened its position with Will Shipley in recent months.
Area recruiter Danny Pearman was on hand Friday night to watch Matthews (N.C.) Weddington 2021 four-star running back Will Shipley in his playoff game.
Shipley (5-11, 198) attended Clemson’s final home game last month, making the Tigers the first suitor to draw multiple game visits this season. He reportedly went to N.C. State again a week ago for its loss to UNC.
He told us last month that his next step is to trim his list to a small group of finalists.
We feel we know who the contenders are going to be, based on intel as well as the evidence: Clemson, Notre Dame and maybe N.C. State.
Despite their season and questions about Dave Doeren’s long-term job security, we aren’t going to write off the Wolfpack yet strictly because of what we’re hearing. But we’re awfully skeptical N.C. State can actually pull this off.
Notre Dame is the most significant threat, and the Fighting Irish sent a pair of assistants to be on the sidelines for Friday night’s game as well.
Our indications are that Shipley’s recruitment isn’t going to be resolved until the spring, with the principle contenders earning at least one more exhaustive visit -- ahem, Clemson’s elite junior day.
8. Meanwhile, another prominent blue-chipper in the area instead came to them.
Charlotte (N.C.) Mallard Creek five-star linebacker Trenton Simpson posted a pic on social media indicating his attendance at Clemson’s blowout ACC Championship victory Saturday night, appearing to sit among the Tigers’ faithful.
From what we have gathered, Clemson did not make a stop Friday to check in with Simpson (6-3, 225), elevated last week to No. 26 overall.
We were told that Simpson has a cousin who is close to defensive end Justin Foster, and that Simpson knows Foster having family roots in Forest City, N.C. – close to Foster’s home in Shelby.
We’ve gotten strong indications Simpson is set to announce for UNC on Dec. 18.
Circumstances can change, but our information continues pointing toward this remaining status quo. And no official visit has been discussed for this weekend.
The Tigers have yet to offer and await resolution with the longstanding oversign target in the crosshairs …
9. While Clemson managed a couple of recruiting stops late last week, we reiterated that the heavy miles would be logged this week.
None more so than to make its final appearance in front of the highest-ranked uncommitted prospect in the country.
Clemson can become the first team in the Rivals.com era to net four of the nation’s top-10 prospects if it finishes with Upland (Calif.) five-star linebacker Justin Flowe.
Flowe (6-2, 225), ranked No. 4 in the country, has cited Clemson, Oregon and Miami as his finalists after bailing on an official visit to UGA last month.
We have long characterized USC, though, as the most dangerous threat to Clemson should a coaching change for a splash name materialize.
That didn’t happen, as Clay Helton was officially retained last week.
Rivals.com regional analyst Adam Gorney then reported that Flowe had lined up one final official visit for USC this weekend. At most, we suspect it to be a courtesy trip.
Miami coach Manny Diaz and assistants reportedly traveled Sunday to conduct their in-home. Oregon coach Mario Cristobal is expected this week as well.
Five-star linebacker and Clemson priority target Justin Flowe has a busy week ahead.
Per TigerIllustrated.com sources, defensive coordinator Brent Venables is slated to be in-home Tuesday in an effort to close out Clemson’s chase.
Flowe plans to announce on Dec. 18 as part of ESPN’s early signing day coverage.
All signs still point decidedly in the Tigers’ favor. But the USC visit would be another visit nonetheless, and it underscores why we’ve repeatedly framed this as a situation Clemson cannot feel totally comfortable with until it’s done.
10. Finally, there’s the mystery man whose recruitment has been one of the more unique we’ve covered: Columbia (S.C.) Hammond School five-star defensive end Jordan Burch.
Burch (6-5, 265), ranked No. 8 overall, has conducted one of the more private recruitments in most observers’ memories.
We’ve depicted his mother as the leading voice and influence, and that’s about the extent of his circle. She works intently to keep things discreet, which has dually made things tough on college coaches to read as well.
We reported in last week’s edition that the Burch camp had streamlined communication to further tighten the reins and control which voices get in, and when.
Here’s the latest example for how tight this ship is run:
During a contact period, the standard operating procedure for college coaches is to go to the school for a visit. This late in the game, the trip might also include a meeting elsewhere with the parent and/or prospect. But there’s usually always a measure of coaches seeing and being seen at the high school, as it advances the view that the school wants the prospect among other benefits.
We have learned there were no school stops by his suitors last week, per se. All appointments go to and through Burch’s mother, although coaches were allowed to attend Burch’s high school basketball games last week.
Burch plans to reveal his decision Dec. 19, the day after the early signing period begins. We have been told by multiple contacts that Hammond’s exams go through Dec. 18, and that is thought to have influenced the delay. Lots of noise about ESPN broadcasting an announcement, and that would make sense given his participation in its all-star game. But we haven’t confirmed that.
He has not expressed whether he will use an official visit on the final available weekend, with Clemson, South Carolina and UGA all having gone without. Only the two distant suitors with whom he was less familiar, LSU and Alabama, have gotten official visits. His latest visit came to South Carolina two weeks ago for Clemson's rivalry landslide win, and most tangible evidence adds up in the Gamecocks' favor.
We field recurring questions about Clemson’s standing, particularly considering Burch has yet to visit campus since the July All-In Cookout.
We dropped strong hints that the Tigers would go see Burch late last week, just as they had during the previous year’s ACC Championship preparations.
What we can tell you, per our sources, is that at least one Clemson assistant coach made an in-home with Burch on Friday. And we know other multiple other schools got through the door to see him last week as well, for that matter.
The Tigers still believe they are in it, and that is news in and of itself.
THE TIGER FAN SHOP has your Clemson FIESTA BOWL & College Football Playoff gear HERE!
By: Paul Strelow
1. It’s go time.
The NCAA’s football postseason recruiting contact period began just one week ago. But there’s only one week remaining, as the doors shut Sunday night in advance of the early signing period commencing the following Wednesday.
Clemson, as you know, instead was going through ACC Championship game preparations last week – which kept coaches tied up until Thursday evening after the team’s final on-campus practice.
So they have one week to tie up the remaining loose ends before the Dec. 18-20 harvest.
To their benefit, much of their work was already done on the front end.
But there also remain a couple of big boxes left to check, and we’ll expound upon those as we go.
Dabo Swinney isn’t necessarily a pound-the-pavement recruiter at this point in his career, nor are we saying he should be given his responsibilities, priorities, profile and recruiting leverage.
Yet we guarantee he’s going to be a busy man on the trail this week, jet-setting for in-home visits morning, day and night as Clemson puts the finishing touches on the commitments already gathered as well as attempting to close on its handful of remaining targets.
The Tigers then have an official visit weekend to host before turning prep to their early signing day production.
The wheels, as we laid out last week, began rolling Thursday …
2. As you’ve seen, Clemson's staff has dabbled the last month or so in reaching out to various defensive backs. One previous one – Jacksonville (Fla.) Bartram Trail’s Tre’Vez Johnson, a Florida commitment – elicited an offer. Others such as Tucker (Ga.) four-star Isaiah Dunson or Scottsdale (Ariz.) Saguaro four-star Jacobe Covington, we’ve framed it simply as the Tigers opening a line of communication as a contingency measure.
Lakleland (Fla.) cornerback and Clemson target Kendall Dennis.
To this point, we have said the Tigers were creating options in case a scholarship spot opened late in the class.
We can now disclose that Clemson will add another cornerback this cycle.
Scholarship numbers at the position next season project to be dangerously low, and we anticipate there to be attrition beyond the expected NFL Draft departure of junior standout A.J. Terrell.
3. Which leads us to the prospect we introduced to the conversation Thursday morning.
Lakeland (Fla.) corner Kendall Dennis announced an offer from Clemson on Friday night after corners coach Mike Reed traveled to his school earlier in the day.
We foreshadowed the offer in reporting the day before that Dennis had already arranged an official visit that comes this weekend.
Dennis (5-11, 172) has been courted heaviest down the stretch by Oklahoma, Nebraska, Auburn and to a lesser degree, Florida State’s lame-duck staff.
Oklahoma hosted him for an official visit two weeks ago. Per our intel, the Sooners have him as a contingency plan should they miss on Aldine (Texas) MacArthur four-star Joshua Eaton – for whom they’re the heavy favorite – and Raytown (Mo.) four-star Dontae Manning, a decommitment now looking around.
Nebraska had him in for an official visit the week before and has him as a priority, while Auburn attracted him for a couple of visits before the season but have had him on the backburner as they chase more immediate junior college options.
FSU was set to bring him in for an official visit before Willie Taggart was fired, while Tennessee likewise tried to score an official visit but was denied.
We’ve been asked about Florida interest in light of the Gators’ track record at his school. Our understanding is they just took to others more early in the process. Dennis, who transferred to Lakeland from local rival Kathleen during the offseason, didn’t really hit radars until early last spring. Florida took a Texas corner in April and closed out another Texas four-star corner in July, then cashed in on relationships to bring in four-star Ethan Pouncey a week ago.
Dennis, of course, is a teammate of Clemson five-star running back commitment Demarkcus Bowman and one-time receiver target Arian Smith.
We previously reported Clemson would be placing a premium on speed should it pursue another candidate.
Dennis posted a 4.40 40 at the Opening regional last February. Check.
He fits the profile of a field corner Clemson could also use to cover the slot if desired.
Dennis declared by social media Sunday night that he would now be committing this month. As we expressed on the WestZone message board, these things have a way of changing depending on who owns the leverage.
The Tigers hold the cards going down the stretch.
But hold tight on the italics. There are other moving pieces involved.
4. Dennis isn’t the only Sunshine State prospect in line to spend the final weekend in Clemson before the early signing period.
The Tigers also get the presumed final at-bat for Miami (Fla.) Columbus four-star receiver Xzavier Henderson.
Henderson (6-3, 185), who climbed to No. 101 nationally in last week’s rankings update, plans to announce a commitment at the Jan. 4 All-America Bowl in San Antonio, Texas. He has expressed uncertainty about whether he will sign this month or February.
Alabama and UGA drew official visits earlier in the season. We believe Henderson likes the Tide more, while the Dawgs felt more confident in their standing.
Either way, Florida has stood as the team to beat … unless Clemson turned the heat back up.
Which, as we reported more than a week ago, it has.
Henderson took his Florida official visit a week ago; he’s been to Gainesville numerous times this season to see his brother C.J., a Gators starting corner.
On Friday, C.J. announced his intent to enter the NFL Draft early, interestingly bypassing Florida’s bowl game as well. His departure was expected and he’s been billed as a potential first-rounder, although it’s widely accepted that C.J. didn’t have the caliber of season many predicted.
As far as Xzavier’s recruitment goes, Florida has always benefitted from the relationships that having his brother have afforded. But he was never going to go to Gainesville just because his brother did.
We’ve witnessed a pattern of business decisions from C.J., and let’s just say that underlines why WRU’s push should have his competitors’ attention.
Miami (Fla.) 4-star Xzavier Henderson's recruitment is winding down with a visit to Clemson on deck.
Not a bad time to have Tee Higgins register his most monster of statistical performances.
But now we’re in a holding pattern.
We wrote a piece last week expressing that Clemson’s commitment list doesn’t stand to be impacted by the Tigers presumptively finally losing a coordinator to a head-coaching job elsewhere. The remaining uncommitted targets, though, were a different matter, we said.
Our Larry Williams reported Sunday that co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott is strongly in play for the USF job and in good shape to land it.
Scott is Clemson’s lead recruiter on Henderson, and we’re not sure this is a situation that could just be handed over to another assistant and the Tigers pick up where they left off.
A lot here rides on the decision and timing of USF’s search.
We can tell you that Clemson is already ahead of the game with plans to address the situation with Henderson as well as the Tigers’ two receiver commitments: Phenix City (Ala.) Central four-star receiver E.J. Williams and Clearwater (Fla.) Academy International high-three star Ajou Ajou.
5. Dennis was the first of two new targets we brought to light last week – the other of which we’re already position to close the book, as we like to say.
Birmingham (Ala.) Briarwood Christian three-star offensive lineman Trent Howard announced his commitment Friday night via social media.
Howard (6-4, 285) committed to Georgia Tech in June but withdrew his pledge Thursday evening.
We immediately broke the news thereafter that Clemson was the cause for his move, as Dabo Swinney offered the son of his former Alabama national championship teammate earlier in the week.
Howard visited Clemson in the spring but wasn’t on the radar as far as an offer at that time.
Miami, Boston College, Louisville, Wake Forest and Mississippi State offered in the spring. Auburn and FSU conveyed interest.
Howard played tackle as a senior, but he was recruited as an interior offensive lineman for Clemson. He could project to either guard or center.
As we indicated, this development did not make Georgia Tech happy; we were told the Yellow Jackets viewed him as their best offensive line commitment.
6. Why did this move come about?
As with cornerback, we can tell you that Clemson's staff has reason to anticipate further attrition on the offensive line this offseason.
Bringing in six offensive linemen in one class isn’t necessarily the ideal when large position hauls create the possibility for numbers difficulties down the line.
This observer has always advocated that if you’re going to carry more at a specific position, offensive line should be it because of the greater challenge in predicting their futures. There tends to be more misses at the position, plus a higher volume of injuries that can quickly rob depth.
Clemson has kept a comparatively baseline number at that position through Dabo Swinney’s tenure – roughly 15 – in part because of minimal turnover and line coach Robbie Caldwell’s track record for efficiently maximizing what they have.
Yet Swinney signed off on the offensive line getting the vacating scholarship simply on need.
If everybody returned, Clemson would enter next season with just 14 scholarship linemen.
7. As referenced, the coaches were freed Thursday night to hit the recruiting trail before reconvening with the team in Charlotte.
One of the most important stops was just a short drive from the team hotel.
Clemson has further strengthened its position with Will Shipley in recent months.
Area recruiter Danny Pearman was on hand Friday night to watch Matthews (N.C.) Weddington 2021 four-star running back Will Shipley in his playoff game.
Shipley (5-11, 198) attended Clemson’s final home game last month, making the Tigers the first suitor to draw multiple game visits this season. He reportedly went to N.C. State again a week ago for its loss to UNC.
He told us last month that his next step is to trim his list to a small group of finalists.
We feel we know who the contenders are going to be, based on intel as well as the evidence: Clemson, Notre Dame and maybe N.C. State.
Despite their season and questions about Dave Doeren’s long-term job security, we aren’t going to write off the Wolfpack yet strictly because of what we’re hearing. But we’re awfully skeptical N.C. State can actually pull this off.
Notre Dame is the most significant threat, and the Fighting Irish sent a pair of assistants to be on the sidelines for Friday night’s game as well.
Our indications are that Shipley’s recruitment isn’t going to be resolved until the spring, with the principle contenders earning at least one more exhaustive visit -- ahem, Clemson’s elite junior day.
8. Meanwhile, another prominent blue-chipper in the area instead came to them.
Charlotte (N.C.) Mallard Creek five-star linebacker Trenton Simpson posted a pic on social media indicating his attendance at Clemson’s blowout ACC Championship victory Saturday night, appearing to sit among the Tigers’ faithful.
From what we have gathered, Clemson did not make a stop Friday to check in with Simpson (6-3, 225), elevated last week to No. 26 overall.
We were told that Simpson has a cousin who is close to defensive end Justin Foster, and that Simpson knows Foster having family roots in Forest City, N.C. – close to Foster’s home in Shelby.
We’ve gotten strong indications Simpson is set to announce for UNC on Dec. 18.
Circumstances can change, but our information continues pointing toward this remaining status quo. And no official visit has been discussed for this weekend.
The Tigers have yet to offer and await resolution with the longstanding oversign target in the crosshairs …
9. While Clemson managed a couple of recruiting stops late last week, we reiterated that the heavy miles would be logged this week.
None more so than to make its final appearance in front of the highest-ranked uncommitted prospect in the country.
Clemson can become the first team in the Rivals.com era to net four of the nation’s top-10 prospects if it finishes with Upland (Calif.) five-star linebacker Justin Flowe.
Flowe (6-2, 225), ranked No. 4 in the country, has cited Clemson, Oregon and Miami as his finalists after bailing on an official visit to UGA last month.
We have long characterized USC, though, as the most dangerous threat to Clemson should a coaching change for a splash name materialize.
That didn’t happen, as Clay Helton was officially retained last week.
Rivals.com regional analyst Adam Gorney then reported that Flowe had lined up one final official visit for USC this weekend. At most, we suspect it to be a courtesy trip.
Miami coach Manny Diaz and assistants reportedly traveled Sunday to conduct their in-home. Oregon coach Mario Cristobal is expected this week as well.
Five-star linebacker and Clemson priority target Justin Flowe has a busy week ahead.
Per TigerIllustrated.com sources, defensive coordinator Brent Venables is slated to be in-home Tuesday in an effort to close out Clemson’s chase.
Flowe plans to announce on Dec. 18 as part of ESPN’s early signing day coverage.
All signs still point decidedly in the Tigers’ favor. But the USC visit would be another visit nonetheless, and it underscores why we’ve repeatedly framed this as a situation Clemson cannot feel totally comfortable with until it’s done.
10. Finally, there’s the mystery man whose recruitment has been one of the more unique we’ve covered: Columbia (S.C.) Hammond School five-star defensive end Jordan Burch.
Burch (6-5, 265), ranked No. 8 overall, has conducted one of the more private recruitments in most observers’ memories.
We’ve depicted his mother as the leading voice and influence, and that’s about the extent of his circle. She works intently to keep things discreet, which has dually made things tough on college coaches to read as well.
We reported in last week’s edition that the Burch camp had streamlined communication to further tighten the reins and control which voices get in, and when.
Here’s the latest example for how tight this ship is run:
During a contact period, the standard operating procedure for college coaches is to go to the school for a visit. This late in the game, the trip might also include a meeting elsewhere with the parent and/or prospect. But there’s usually always a measure of coaches seeing and being seen at the high school, as it advances the view that the school wants the prospect among other benefits.
We have learned there were no school stops by his suitors last week, per se. All appointments go to and through Burch’s mother, although coaches were allowed to attend Burch’s high school basketball games last week.
Burch plans to reveal his decision Dec. 19, the day after the early signing period begins. We have been told by multiple contacts that Hammond’s exams go through Dec. 18, and that is thought to have influenced the delay. Lots of noise about ESPN broadcasting an announcement, and that would make sense given his participation in its all-star game. But we haven’t confirmed that.
He has not expressed whether he will use an official visit on the final available weekend, with Clemson, South Carolina and UGA all having gone without. Only the two distant suitors with whom he was less familiar, LSU and Alabama, have gotten official visits. His latest visit came to South Carolina two weeks ago for Clemson's rivalry landslide win, and most tangible evidence adds up in the Gamecocks' favor.
We field recurring questions about Clemson’s standing, particularly considering Burch has yet to visit campus since the July All-In Cookout.
We dropped strong hints that the Tigers would go see Burch late last week, just as they had during the previous year’s ACC Championship preparations.
What we can tell you, per our sources, is that at least one Clemson assistant coach made an in-home with Burch on Friday. And we know other multiple other schools got through the door to see him last week as well, for that matter.
The Tigers still believe they are in it, and that is news in and of itself.
THE TIGER FAN SHOP has your Clemson FIESTA BOWL & College Football Playoff gear HERE!
