Highly Touted Florida Safety in Frequent Contact with Clemson
By: Gavin Oliver August 10, 2023

This highly touted safety from the Sunshine State on Clemson’s recruiting radar is communicating a lot with the Tigers’ safeties coach.

Mandarin High School (Jacksonville, Fla.) four-star Hylton “Drake” Stubbs has been in frequent contact with Mickey Conn since the calendar turned to August and college coaches could start reaching out to recruits in the 2025 class.

“Like right when August 1st hit, he hit me up and we’ve just been having pretty good conversations,” Stubbs told The Clemson Insider.

Clemson is certainly interested in Stubbs, based on what Conn has conveyed to the 6-foot-2, 185-pound junior.

“He’s saying I’m one of the best safeties that they’re looking at right now,” Stubbs said.

A top-100 national prospect in his class, Stubbs holds more than two dozen total offers and hopes to see the Tigers eventually pull the trigger on an offer of their own.

“It would be awesome,” he said. “I’m still waiting, but I’m happy that they’re recruiting me very heavy. So, it would be a great feeling to get an offer from Clemson.”

Stubbs competed at the Dabo Swinney Camp this summer and said he impressed the Tigers’ coaching staff with his strong camp showing.

“I think they like me as a rangy safety, they say I’m very rangy,” he said. “They say I’m very good at man coverage, and they just loved how I performed at the camp honestly.”

The camp visit marked Stubbs’ first-ever trip to Tiger Town. He could return to Clemson for a game this season, possibly when the Tigers take on Florida State in late September. His older brother, Harold Stubbs IV, is a redshirt freshman defensive back for the Seminoles.

“My brother, he actually plays for FSU, so I’ll probably be at the game, FSU versus Clemson,” he said. “I’m definitely trying to make it back up there, but I don’t know when yet.”

Stubbs is the No. 8 safety nationally and No. 77 overall prospect in the country for the 2025 class, per the 247Sports Composite rankings.

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