We hope everyone had a great weekend. It was certainly a big recruiting weekend in Tiger Town as Clemson played host to a bunch of top prospects for the program’s official visit festivities.
Official visit weekend a home run
Caden Grice wasn’t the only one hitting home runs this weekend for Clemson. Dabo Swinney and the football staff hit one with the official visit weekend. We’ve talked with a number of the official visitors and a number of sources at Clemson since the visits concluded Sunday and the feedback is very positive for the Tigers.
One of the highlights of the visits for many of the prospects was spending time at Swinney’s house, the one in Clemson. Swinney’s house is impressive and the basketball court is always a hit.
Lots of schools try to sell family but nobody does it better than Dabo and Clemson. Recruits can tell the difference when it’s fake and when it’s real.
One big commitment has already been made public, but others are on the way. Clemson likes to have most of “the hay in the barn” for a recruiting class before the summer is over. This weekend’s official visit set the foundation for that to happen once again.
Dabo gets his man
Earlier tonight five-star Sammy Brown let the world know that he has committed to the Tigers. Dabo and the staff have worked this one for a long, long time and it was great to see all of the work pay off. Getting him to head to Tiger Town instead of Athens was certainly no easy task.
Sammy was not one of the many players these days that was more interested in NIL than he was in what the school has to offer. He loved Clemson for the reasons many have fallen in love with for years.
Brown will be an impact player at linebacker for the Tigers from the day he sets foot on campus. His arrival will come at a great time with Jeremiah Trotter Jr. and Barrett Carter likely heading to the NFL after this season.
Tigers in great shape with 5-star Texas WR
Several big-time wide receivers made the trip for Clemson’s official visit weekend and we are hearing positive returns from their time in Tiger Town. One of those is certainly five-star Bryant Wesco.
The Midlothian (Texas) High School star made an unofficial visit to Clemson back in March, when he picked up an offer from the Tigers. Shortly thereafter, he named Swinney’s program among his top eight schools.
Oklahoma was considered the frontrunner to land Wesco for quite some time, though some other schools have remained in the hunt including TCU, even after the departure of Garrett Riley who recruited Wesco when Riley was at TCU.
Tyler Grisham has been helping Riley court Wesco for the Tigers, and we can tell you Clemson hit it out of the park with Wesco on the official visit this past weekend. We believe the Tigers are in a great spot with him coming out of the weekend, based on what we’ve gathered in talking with sources. Of course, today isn’t signing day but if it was, we can say that we think Clemson would be the choice.
Wesco took an official visit to Southern Cal in May and he has had official visits to LSU and TCU on the calendar for the next couple of weekends.
247Sports ranks Wesco as the No. 3 wide receiver and No. 9 overall prospect in the 2024 class.
5-star party in Clemson
Wesco isn’t the only five-star prospect that the Tigers helped themselves with during the official visit weekend.
We can tell you Clemson also made a very favorable impression on guys like Buford (Ga.) five-star defensive lineman Eddrick Houston, and we know that the official visit weekend also went very well with Houston’s Buford teammate, five-star safety KJ Bolden.
It’s safe to say it was a five-star party in Tiger Town over the weekend. Along with Brown, Wesco, Houston and Bolden, the Tigers played host to a couple of other five-stars in Parkview (Lilburn, Ga.) athlete Mike Matthews and Central (Phenix City, Ala.) receiver Cam Coleman.
Clemson has signed multiple five-star recruits, according to the 247Sports Composite, in five of the last eight cycles. The Tigers got one composite five-star in the 2023 class, one in the 2019 class and one in the 2016 class. But Clemson got two composite five-stars in 2017, five in 2018, five in 2020, three in 2021 and two in 2022.
We feel confident in saying that coming out of this past weekend, Clemson is well positioned to land at least a couple more (plus Brown) five-stars in this year’s class.
Top Texas OL, parents all smiles after Clemson official
Hopefully you saw our interview with Archbishop Hoban (Akron, Ohio) four-star offensive lineman William Satterwhite, who told us that the Tigers are in his top two with Tennessee following an “outstanding” official visit.
Also among the half dozen O-line targets on hand for the official visit weekend was Lindale (Texas) High School four-star Casey Poe, who received an offer from the Tigers when he made his first trip to Clemson for the program’s March junior day.
TCI also caught up with Poe, who had a great time during the official visit, as did his parents.
“We all definitely walked away smiling,” he said.
We’ll have a full story later detailing his official visit, but Poe told us that Clemson “helped kind of move that needle” with the official visit and “kind of just solidified their spot, solidified who they are.”
“I think that kind of sums up the visit and sums up how I’m thinking about it,” he said.
Poe is still looking to make his commitment prior to the start of his senior season. He took an official visit to Georgia last month and will officially visit Texas Tech this weekend before going to Auburn and Alabama for official visits this month as well. He is also working to schedule official visit dates with Oklahoma and LSU.
According to the 247Sports Composite, Poe is the nation’s No. 8 interior offensive lineman and No. 142 overall prospect in the 2024 class.
Xavier Thomas is back to win another championship. Dear Old Clemson has added signed posters from Thomas to our online store.
Now there is a new way you can support Clemson student-athletes. Purchase collectibles from Dear Old Clemson and the proceeds with go to support Clemson student-athletes. 
Dear Old Clemson is doing NIL the ‘Clemson way’, but we need your help to make sure we build a sustainable, repeatable model that will help keep Clemson competitive with the other top programs around the nation.
Dabo Swinney: “We need your assistance more than ever to provide meaningful NIL opportunities. Tiger Impact, Dear Old Clemson and other collectives allow student-athletes to utilize their voice and platform to maximize their NIL opportunities and strengthen their impact in the community.”
Graham Neff:
“Tiger Impact, Dear Old Clemson and other collectives need your support to help provide meaningful NIL opportunities for our student athletes. We are doing things the right way, the Clemson way with integrity as a non-negotiable and we fully support the mission of these groups.”
Join the Tiger Club or Lady Tiger Club to help these great student-athletes and help the Tigers compete at the highest level!
