Sometimes the best is saved for last.
Several high-profile quarterbacks worked out for the Clemson coaching staff last week during Dabo Swinney’s high school camp. While many turned in impressive performances, it wasn’t until the final day, when four-star Peyton Houston (Evangel Christian, Shreveport, LA) worked out, that the Tigers decided they’d found their guy.
Houston was more than impressive, displaying the kind of accuracy not often seen from a quarterback yet to start his junior year of high school. The blue-chip talent not only could make all of the throws, but he made it look easy.
Even more impressive is the fact that he did it after experiencing a number of travel issues the night before. Houston and his family didn’t get settled into their hotel room until around 3 a.m. the night before the workout, yet he still went out and knocked the workout out of the park.
“If you got a goal in mind, it’s very easy to achieve it, no matter what difficulties come,” Houston told The Clemson Insider. “Just for me, playing ball is all I do. I’ve been doing it since I was two years old. Anything outside of that doesn’t really affect me.”
And while Houston might have been the last of the high-profile quarterbacks to throw at camp, he was the first to come away with an offer from the Tigers. An offer he undoubtedly earned.
“Every time I throw, I know the ability God has blessed me with,” Houston said. “If I don’t have an offer from a place, after I throw, I feel very confident I’m going to come out with it. And if I don’t, it’s really just God saying no. So you just keep working, knowing there are ways to improve. But that day, that was a smooth camp for me. I really was on. It felt real smooth, so I felt it coming, which is a blessing.”
So far, Houston is the only quarterback Clemson has offered in the 2027 class, which gives it a little more meaning.
“It’s a blessing, honestly, knowing that they think I am the best quarterback in the class,” he said. “I am just so blessed knowing the process that it took to get this offer from Clemson. It means a lot for sure.”
Houston first visited for the rivalry matchup against South Carolina last November. He returned in March for the Underclass Experience. After his visit for camp, he’s now been on campus three times, and the young quarterback has really grown to respect how Swinney runs his program.
“He’s really focused on building a relationship with the kids and making sure that they have the right ones for their system, that fits their school, that fits their program,” Houston added. “It’s the right way, it’s just a different type of process.”
Houston is already one of the most heavily sought-after quarterbacks in the class and has more than 30 offers, including Texas, Texas A&M, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Georgia and LSU. Southern Cal is another one of his offers, and Houston is fresh off a trip out west, his last planned visit of the summer.
While he is hoping to take some game-day visits in the fall, then make a decision, Houston readily admits his recruitment might not last that long.
“I want to see a couple of games of football, so I was really thinking mid junior football season,” Houston said about a timeline for a decision. “But how it’s looking, it might be a little bit before that. Whenever God tells me the school, that is when I’m going to commit.”
As he continues through the process, there are two things Houston is really looking for in a school, and Clemson would seem to check both of those boxes.
“It really is two things,” Houston said. “One, I’ve always wanted to be in the Hall of Fame, so the school that can get me to the next level, development-wise. And two, football comes to an end eventually. You don’t play football your whole life. So just a school that sets me up outside of sports. Just making sure that I’m well set if things don’t go that way, if God says something differently. A school that gives me a degree where I can be able to thrive outside of sports.”