Clemson has already had one superstar quarterback from Gainesville High School, and now the Tigers are courting a second.

Four-star Kharim Hughley announced an offer from Clemson early Saturday, becoming the fourth quarterback in the class to secure an offer from the Tigers. The 6-foot signal caller earned the offer with a superb showing at Dabo Swinney’s high school camp last month, his first time ever stepping foot on campus.

“I liked it. I really liked it,” Hughley told The Clemson Insider. “It is close to home, about an hour and ten minutes from where I live. So, it is really close.”

Coming off the practice field, after his workout was complete, Hughley felt like he had knocked it out of the park, and offensive coordinator Garrett Riley agreed. Hughley also camped at Georgia, Ohio State, LSU and Alabama, but he felt he turned in his best performance in Clemson.

“It went really well,” he said. “It was definitely the best workout I had all camp season. Just kind of went out there and showed what I have. I did good. I got to meet Coach Riley. Since then, we have been building that relationship. We talk pretty often. It is just like any relationship. Just got to keep getting to know each other more and more.”

While Hughley had to wait a few weeks before getting the offer, he finally got the call on Friday night on the Fourth of July. He was spending time with his family when he got the call, so he chose to wait until Saturday morning to go public.

“Man, I was excited,” Hughley said. “I was happy that I got it. Told my dad, and he told me congratulations. Made it an overall good day. Got to spend time with my family, and an offer from Clemson. A really, really nice day. So yeah, I was excited.”

Due to his workout being so good, Hughley thought he might end up being on the receiving end of an offer at some point; he just wasn’t sure when.

“I kind of had an idea,” Hughley said. “I had a really, really good camp. Coach Riley said he was really impressed. Coach Boyd was really impressed. They said I was one of the guys they looked forward to keep recruiting in the future. So I was kind of expecting it to come sometime.”

Two different recruiting services rank Hughley inside the Top 150 players, regardless of position. ESPN ranks the blue-chip talent No. 93 overall and No. 4 among all quarterbacks in the 2027 class.

Last season as a sophomore, he passed for 2,543 yards with 22 touchdown throws to just two interceptions.

Hughley now has close to 20 offers, including Georgia, Georgia Tech, Florida, Florida State, Ole Miss and South Carolina. Most of those offers have come since the start of the spring, and the one last week from Clemson vaults the Tigers towards the top of his list.

“They are amongst the top schools,” Hughley said. “I really do enjoy Clemson. Again, it is really close. Looking forward to this process and where it goes from here.”

Hughley knows that as a quarterback, he might need to make a decision sooner rather than later. Many schools tend to take one per class, and like to have them locked up as quickly as possible. Clemson is only expected to take one in his class.

For that reason, he is thinking he might commit as early as December. If it does stretch out a little longer, don’t expect it to go too far into next year. Maybe a couple of junior day visits in January, then make a decision.

“Most schools only take one quarterback,” Hughley said. “It isn’t like any other position. I don’t want to get in a position where I have to hurry up and rush the process because I am late on committing. I don’t want to feel rushed. I have been saying since my freshman season, before I had any offers, that was the ideal time I wanted to commit, so it kind of works out perfectly.”

Photo courtesy of Dawson Powers