Amare Adams is one of the three Clemson early enrollees who joined the latest episode of Clemson Football’s official podcast, 2 Right Turns.

During the episode, the true freshman defensive tackle reflected on his recruiting process – specifically, his decision to “stay home” and choose Clemson, as a blue-chip, in-state prospect from South Florence High School.

Adams – a former five-star recruit ranked as the No. 1 player in the Palmetto State for the 2025 recruiting class – recalled falling in love with Clemson when he attended one of Dabo Swinney’s youth football camps.

“Honestly, I’ve always been liking Clemson. When I came to the camp – I think it was my seventh-grade year – when I came to the camp, I just fell in love with it more,” Adams said. “I was grinding, just trying to get the offer to come here.”

Adams received that sought-after offer from Clemson on June 1, 2023. Six months later, on Dec. 3, 2023, he committed to the Tigers over a top schools list that included in-state rival South Carolina, along with Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Florida State and Tennessee.

As is typical in the world of recruiting, just because Adams committed to Clemson didn’t mean other programs stopped pursuing him. And seeing as he was a top-25 national talent and one of the five best defensive linemen in his recruiting class, per the 247Sports Composite, other schools kept up with the full-court press.

However, despite multiple teams still coming after him, Adams remained fully on board with the Tigers. He stayed true to his pledge and signed with Clemson this past December before joining the program as a midyear enrollee in January.

“When I got the offer, I think a couple months after I committed here – I was committed for almost two years – but [there were] some other schools in the state, they were trying to get me to come,” said Adams, the highest-rated signee in Clemson’s 2025 class.

“But honestly, I felt like I wouldn’t have probably been as happy. How family oriented [Clemson is], it probably wouldn’t have been like that at any other school.”

Though Adams wasn’t born and raised a Clemson fan, he said the Tigers won him over during the recruiting process.  

“Honestly, they probably won me over in the process. Because most of my family, we were kind of Carolina fans,” he said. “So, they just won me over as soon as I started growing up.”

When he signed with Clemson during the December early signing period, Adams had collected 250 career tackles, 40 tackles for loss and 14 sacks in his prep career, including 66 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, four sacks and nine quarterback pressures in his senior season prior to the early signing period.

Adams turned heads at the Navy All-American Bowl in San Antonio in January and earned the organization’s Anthony Muñoz Lineman of the Year award, while he was also selected to the South Carolina team for the 2024 Shrine Bowl.

The 6-foot-4, 285-pound athlete also played basketball and ran track in high school.

Hear more from Adams, as well as fellow early enrollees Gideon Davidson and Easton Ware, in the latest 2 Right Turns episode below: