By Will Vandervort.
By Will Vandervort
It isn’t a coincidence that Clemson’s ability to get some of the best athletes in the country in the last 10 years started the first year Dabo Swinney was recruiting full-time.
In 2004, just a month after Swinney came on board as Tommy Bowden’s wide receivers coach, Clemson’s class was considered a Top 65 one. Not all that impressive.
Clemson only signed one-four star player that year—Cory Lambert—no five-star athletes and 19 of the 27 players were two-star prospects.
The very first year Swinney was recruiting full-time for Clemson, the Tigers signed a top 20 class in 2005, including six four-star athletes.
Swinney was named one of the top 20 recruiters in the country that year, and in 2006 he landed as one of the top five recruiters after he brought in five-star running back C.J. Spiller. That year the Tigers signed two five-star recruits and had six four-star players as they ranked in the Top 15 nationally.
“According to you guys, people are not happy with a Top 15 recruiting class. I guess that is the biggest difference,” Swinney said. “We used to could get a Top 30 and it was pretty good, so I guess we have raised the bar.
“That’s a good thing. We are going to continue to do that and continue to recruit the best players. We are beyond the point where people are surprised that we sign a great player or a great class. Clemson is a special place. If you will just come and look at it, you will see that for yourself. I get that all the time. People will say, ‘There is just some different about this place.’ That’s because there is something different about Clemson.”
That’s why Spiller came to Clemson. Once Swinney got him to visit, Spiller fell in love with it and then shocked the world when he chose Clemson over Florida on National Signing Day.
Spiller went on to set numerous Clemson, ACC and NCAA records in his four years at Clemson, and for the most part Clemson has not slipped. Since Spiller and Ricky Sapp signed with Clemson in 2006, the Tigers have landed eight five-star prospects, including cornerback Mackensie Alexander from Immokalee, FL.
“This is a big decision for me,” Alexander said Wednesday after announcing for Clemson on ESPNU. “I look at it as a million dollar decision. Mom and dad have to eat one day so you know I have to get out. I will be spending my four years at… the University of Clemson.”
Though the verdict is still out for the 2013 class, Clemson has signed three top 10 classes in the last seven years and Alexander coming on board will at least solidify that eight of the last nine have been ranked in the Top 20. Swinney has played a huge part as to why.
“One of the strengths in our recruiting is our head coach,” Clemson recruiting coordinator Jeff Scott said. “Number one, he enjoys recruiting and he is involved with it. The other thing is he is very personable.”
Scott says all a lot of coaches in the college game have been doing it for so long that they have put a shield up when it comes to recruiting, and they don’t really communicate that well with a young man or his parents. They are just there giving them the same message.
“Coach Swinney is just so real,” Scott said. “The players can see that and they are attracted to that because maybe he is similar to some coaches they have had along the way that meant a lot to them throughout their high school career.
“Because of his personality, his energy, his passion for Clemson and for the program, it really resonates with our prospects.”
A lot of athletes connect with Swinney thanks to his own rags-to-riches story and how he worked hard to go from a walk-on at Alabama to one of the hot young coaches in college football.
“He is a good guy and a church guy like me,” Alexander said. “He made it from the bottom to the top. The staff, Coach (Brent) Venables and Coach (Mike) Reed, I trusted those guys. I’m going to be in great position.”
And because of Swinney, so is Clemson.
Below is a list of the last 10 recruiting classes at Clemson and shows how far Clemson has come in the last 10 years in attracting the nation’s top talent.
2004
5 stars: 0
4 stars: 1
3 stars: 7
2 stars: 19
Avg. Ranking: Top 65
Top recruit: Corey Lambert
Numbers in the NFL: 4
2005
5 stars: 0
4 stars: 6
3 stars: 14
2 stars: 4
Avg. Ranking: Top 20
Top recruit: Antonio Clay
Numbers in the NFL: 6
2006
5 stars: 2
4 stars: 6
3 stars: 9
2 stars: 2
Avg. Ranking: Top 15
Top recruit: C.J. Spiller
Numbers in the NFL: 7
2007
5 stars: 0
4 stars: 8
3 stars: 11
2 stars: 3
Avg. Ranking: Top 15
Top recruit: Willy Korn
Numbers in the NFL: 6
2008
5 stars: 1
4 stars: 12
3 stars: 8
2 stars: 4
Avg. Ranking: Top 10
Top recruit: DaQuan Bowers
Numbers in the NFL: 5 (potential for this number to rise)
2009
5 stars: 0
4 stars: 7
3 stars: 4
2 stars: 1
Avg. Ranking: Top 40
Top recruit: Tajh Boyd
Numbers in the NFL: ?
2010
5 stars: 0
4 stars: 9
3 stars: 13
2 stars: 1
Avg. Ranking: Top 20
Top recruit: DeAndre Hopkins
Numbers in the NFL: ?
2011
5 stars: 4
4 stars: 6
3 stars: 15
2 stars: 4
Avg. Ranking: Top 10
Top recruit: Stephone Anthony / Tony Steward
Numbers in the NFL: ?
2012
5 stars: 0
4 stars: 9
3 stars: 11
2 stars: 0
Avg. Ranking: Top 10
Top recruit: Travis Blanks
Numbers in the NFL: ?
2013
5 stars: 1
4 stars: 15
3 stars: 7
2 stars: 0
Avg. Ranking: top 13
Top recruit: Mackensie Alexander
Numbers in the NFL: ?