CLEMSON — Max Brown has long known where he wanted to play college football. He just needed to be patient.

That patience paid off on Sunday when Brown became the very first linebacker Clemson offered in the 2027 recruiting class.

Brown wasted no time in locking up his spot, immediately telling linebackers coach Ben Boulware he was all in, becoming the Tigers’ first commit of the 2027 class.

“I called coach Boulware on the way over to one of my friends’ houses,” Brown told The Clemson Insider. “As I’m sitting in their driveway, we’re on the phone, we’re just chopping it up. And then he’s like, ‘Well, look, we want to offer you. He offered me, and I committed right after he offered me.”

That phone call is one Brown will never forget.

“It was really exciting, and I was really happy,” Brown added. “It’s just an indescribable feeling. I’m still not over it.”

A little later, Brown also got a call from Dabo Swinney, and he reiterated the same message to the longtime head coach.

“About an hour or two later, I’m down at the pool, and coach Swinney Facetimes me, and he offers me again,” Brown said. “He wanted me to hear it from him. That was also just another really cool experience. Just something that I’ll never forget for as long as I live. And I told him I was going to commit.”

Brown is the younger brother of current Clemson linebacker Sammy Brown. With his older brother also being a heavily sought-after recruit, Brown was already acclimated to the process. He was also extremely familiar with Clemson, seeing as he has been on campus countless times since the Tigers started recruiting his older brother.

“Clemson’s always been that place that I always could just go back to and never not have a good time,” Brown said. “It just it has that small-time feel, been going there all my life. I never get tired of it. Every time I go up there, there’s something new that I like about it.”

“The people up there, they do it the right way. They don’t mess around with none of the underground, shady stuff, and they make sure that you’re going to be a better man than you are a football player. But they’re also going to make sure you’re a better football player than you were when you got there.”

As a sophomore, Brown totaled an eye-popping 152 total tackles, averaging more than 10 stops per game. He added 14 tackles for loss, two sacks, a forced fumble and three fumble recoveries.

Ohio State, Georgia and Georgia Tech were the runner-ups, but all finished a very distant second behind Clemson. For Brown, there has never been any doubt, and the opportunity at possibly playing alongside his older brother again was just the icing on the cake.

“That’s definitely a big factor,” Brown said. “We had one year in high school together, which was a really great experience. And to do it again is going to be amazing, just on a higher level.”

With the recruiting process now behind him, Brown can solely focus on the final two years of his high school career. At the same time, he’s already envisioning himself running down the hill, something he is very much looking forward to doing.

“Man, I’m already super pumped up,” Brown said. “It can’t come fast enough. I think about it every single day, twice a day.”