The summer recruiting season is in full-swing. Unfortunately, real, live college football is still a couple of months away.

With that in mind, TheClemsonInsider is taking a look back at the recruitment of each returning player on the Clemson roster.

S [autotag]Jayron Kearse[/autotag], Fort Myers, Fla. – Junior

Auburn was the first of two schools to pick up a commitment from Kearse, before he jumped on board with Clemson in August of 2012.

The pledge to those Tigers came 12 months earlier. As a rising junior at Cypress Lake High School, Kearse committed to then head coach Gene Chizik, before ever stepping foot on the Auburn campus.

In January of 2012, after offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn took the head job at Arkansas State, Kearse withdrew his commitment to the Tigers and flipped to Miami. Like he was with Auburn, Kearse was committed to play wide receiver for Miami.

And, by then, Kearse had already transferred to South Fort Myers High School, where Sammy Watkins went to school.

Shortly after wrapping up multi-day June trip to Clemson for the Dabo Swinney Football Camp, Kearse decommitted from Miami. Clemson shot to the top of his list.

Auburn received a visit in July and were considered to be neck-and-neck with Clemson. The two-team race came to an end when Kearse pulled the trigger a couple of weeks later.

“It’s a place, as far as the coaches, they care about their athletes. They’re genuine people. I can go in and have an impact as a freshman, so I was like, why wait?”

Clemson took Kearse as a safety, though he was rated by some recruiting networks as an outside linebacker. He remained firm with his pledge before signing with Clemson.