By Hale McGranahan.

On Super Bowl Sunday, three-star offensive tackle Luke Elder decided to make a quick trip up to Clemson.

The 6-5, 270-pound junior from LaGrange, Georgia went to South Carolina a day earlier for the Gamecocks’ Junior Day. Elder wanted to visit Clemson since he missed out on the Tigers’ event.

“It was really cool. It was different from all the other visits that I went on, because it was a 1-on-1 type of thing,” he told TheClemsonInsider, during a recent interview.

“Since we were up at South Carolina on Saturday, Clemson had shown interest and I wanted to go up there and see it, so I called up coach and we went over there as a family.”

Joined by his parents, Elder got a full tour of the Clemson football facilities.

“It was Sunday and the coaches were trying to get to church,” Elder said. “I like that, so I wasn’t going to hold them too long.”

Elder got word that Clemson was ready to pull the trigger on an offer when he was hanging out with offensive line coach Robbie Caldwell, offensive line graduate assistant Thomas Austin and defensive backs coach Mike Reed.

“After we talked for a good bit, we went down to the weight room, saw some of that, then we went down to the field in the stadium,” Elder said. “We were hanging out on the 20-yardline, coach Caldwell and I were talking. He asked how recruiting has been and I said it was awesome…I said some of the teams that had offered and the most recent one was Louisville.

“Out of the blue, he’s like, ‘No, it’s not. Your most recent offer is Clemson.’ I was like, wow. I was really surprised and excited, because I kind of liked Clemson. I went up there for a game one time. It was really cool to get that offer that way.”

In addition to Clemson, Elder has offers from South Carolina, UNC, Tennessee and California.

Who leads?

“Most impressive, right now, first impression-wise, Clemson made a big one…I wouldn’t say that anyone is first, second or anything like that. I’m still just taking it all in.”