Tre Aiken has long been interested in Clemson.

The 2026 in-state offensive lineman (Clinton) was back on campus earlier this month, as the 3-star talent attended Dabo Swinney’s high school camp for the second consecutive year.

While Aiken got great feedback from offensive line coach Matt Luke, he holds himself to an extremely high standard, meaning he always comes away thinking there is room for improvement.

“I loved it. Loved getting to work with coach Matt Luke, finally,” Aiken told The Clemson Insider. “I feel like I could have done better in the one-on-ones. I know some people think that I’m beating myself up but I hold myself to a certain standard. I expect nothing but to succeed, and this just makes me work harder. I just love to get out there and compete. I loved it out there. Love the drills. I feel like I got better.”

The 6-foot-4, 285-pound recruit also came away overly impressed with Luke’s coaching style.

“He has fun with it, but it’s still work, work, work,” Aiken said. “You’re gonna get better every single day. He kind of reminds me of my coach at Clinton. He told me I did great. He was just correcting me on the pass rush reps. I overset and I fixed that.”

Aiken has also camped at Georgia and NC State, and will work out at South Carolina on Friday. The Gamecocks, along with Florida, Kentucky, NC State and Virginia Tech are some of his Power-5 offers and he believes he will be adding one from the Tigers at some point in the future.

“It’s coming soon,” Aiken added. “There’s little things I got to work on. The small things. Those things come. It comes natural. I’m not in a rush.”

Aiken knows an offer from Clemson is a little harder to come by, and he respects the recruiting process in place inside of the program.

“That’s what I like about Clemson, they don’t just offer anybody,” he said. “If you get the Clemson offer, or you’re getting very good interest from Clemson, that’s special.”

If and when that offer were to come, it’s one that would stand out to the in-state talent.

“It’d be special,” Aiken said. “Because I grew up watching Clemson and going to Clemson games. So it’ll be special.”

While Aiken is still fairly early in the process, the young offensive linemen knows exactly what he is looking for in a college destination.

“God/faith, education and family,” Aiken said. I want to be able to have a good bond, a family-like bond with the team. And I want to be able to get an education. Because at the end of the day, if football doesn’t work out, you got to have education to be something.”