When Clemson began extending class of 2025 offers last week, the first of those offers went out to a consensus five-star recruit ranked as the country’s top player in his class regardless of position.

Providence Day School (Charlotte, N.C.) offensive lineman David Sanders picked up the Tigers’ opening 2025 offer last Wednesday.

“That was a big deal for me and my family, so we were very happy about that,” Sanders told The Clemson Insider.

Being among the select number of prospects to receive an offer from Clemson is a big deal. But being the very first to score a 2025 offer from the Tigers made it even more special for Sanders – the nation’s No. 1 overall player in his class, per 247Sports.

“To be the very first guy to get the offer from Clemson was an extreme honor for me and my family,” he said. “This is something we’ve been dreaming about for a very long time. So, to know that dream came true has definitely been a blessing for me, and I’m just happy to have that offer. But not only to have the offer, just to know that they want me to be the leader of that class if I were to commit to Clemson – they basically told me I’m going to be the lead guy, they want me to bring some guys in that they think would be a good fit for Clemson and just be the leader for the group.

“So, it’s an amazing honor to have that opportunity, and not everybody in the country has an offer from Clemson or can say they talked to Coach Dabo Swinney and things like that. So, it’s a great experience and a great honor to have.”

A 6-foot-7, 260-pound rising junior, Sanders has racked up more than 30 total offers, including opportunities to play at schools such as Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State, South Carolina and Tennessee, to name some.

With so many colleges to choose from, Sanders is doing his due diligence in the recruiting process. He’s continuing to build relationships, take visits and explore his different options, so he doesn’t expect to make his decision anytime soon.

“Just getting out to these schools and seeing these programs, meeting these coaches is the biggest thing for me,” he said. “Building that relationship between me and my family and these coaches is kind of the thing we’re looking for the most out of these spring visits, summer visits, gameday visits. So, I think at the end of the year we’ll have a better idea, but no certain (commitment) timeline as of right now.”

Sanders has traveled to Tiger Town a bunch in the past, including a couple of times last spring before attending the NC State game at Death Valley last October. He returned to Clemson for the program’s underclassmen day in April and said he will be back on campus again this fall, if not this summer as well.

“Me and my parents will be going over a lot of trips. We’re trying to narrow it down to see who are the most important schools to me and things I want to go check out,” Sanders said. “I’ve been to Clemson a good amount of times, so if I would be able to make it up in the summer that’ll be great, but if not I’ll definitely be down there for a gameday visit.”

Now that Clemson has formally pulled the trigger on an offer to Sanders, where do the Tigers stand with him in his recruitment at this time?

“They’re definitely closer to the top of the list,” he said. “Clemson’s been one of my favorite schools since I was a little kid. It’s been a dream to be a part of that program, so to officially have that offer is just a great deal for me, and I’m very excited about it. I’ve been around Clemson for a long time, so I feel like I have that relationship with Coach Austin (offensive line coach Thomas Austin) and Coach Swinney, and just to build on it for the next couple years is going to be really, really good. So, I have a good feeling about Clemson and what they’re doing with their program.”

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