Back on June 5, 2023, Sammy Brown committed to Clemson as a five-star recruit in the 2024 class.

Fast forward to this past Saturday night, and the uber-talented true freshman linebacker made his Death Valley debut in the Tigers’ 66-20 win over App State.

It was certainly an impressive first game at Memorial Stadium for Brown, as the 6-foot-2, 235-pounder led Clemson with 11 tackles, including two special teams stops, against the Mountaineers.

And after a lengthy recruitment, the former highly coveted and sought-after prospect says that type of standout college performance was “a long time coming.”

“I’ve been recruited since my freshman year, so it really has been a long time coming,” he said on Tuesday. “It had been a long recruiting process, so to finally get the results from the whole recruiting process was really fun.”

Brown, a former consensus top-35 national prospect from Jefferson (Ga.) High School, reflected on that recruiting process and why he chose Clemson over a slew of other college suitors – including his home-state Georgia Bulldogs.

“The biggest thing for me about Clemson is that it just felt right,” he said. “I prayed about it and I talked to my parents about it a lot, and in the end, I just felt like I couldn’t be anywhere else.

“I felt like it was God’s decision for me to be here, and I don’t regret it at all,” he added with a big smile.

The 2023 High School Butkus Award winner as the nation’s top high school linebacker, Brown enrolled at Clemson this past January and was ranked as high as the No. 13 overall prospect in the 2024 recruiting class by ESPN.

“I’m very blessed to be in the situation that I’m in,” Brown said. “I’m very excited to be here, and I wouldn’t rather be anywhere else.”

Brown starred on both sides of the ball in high school as a linebacker/running back. As a senior, he amassed 153 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, three blocked kicks and two interceptions on defense. Offensively, he racked up 2,289 rushing yards and scored 40 touchdowns overall.