CLEMSON — For years, Tyler Clements has been one of the unsung heroes when it comes to Clemson recruiting.

Clements, who currently serves as Director of Recruiting, is also the son of President Jim Clements. He has been working behind the scenes of the Tigers’ recruiting process for 12 years now. He began his tenure in 2015 working as an intern. One year later, he had worked his way into a full-time role as the Coordinator for Recruiting Operations, which has evolved over the years into his current role, where he reports directly to General Manager Jordan Sorrells.

In a way, at least from a fan’s perspective, Clements basically works in the shadows. Rarely is his name mentioned. Not after a big recruiting win, or even after what is perceived as a huge recruiting loss, when most are really looking for someone, anyone to blame.

However, Clements absolutely plays an integral part, even if a lot of his efforts go unrecognized.

“I help oversee the whole recruiting process here,” Clements told The Clemson Insider. “I help bring everything together. Anytime prospects are here with us, communications, mailers, social media… I help with a little bit of everything in the process.”

Unsurprisingly, one of the biggest challenges Clements faces in the current era of recruiting is the ever-changing landscape. The rules seem to change from one year to the next, and things have actually gotten to a point where it feels like there aren’t any real rules.

Going back to the prior decade, Clements would have never envisioned the NIL era turning into what it has. Nonetheless, here we are. However, despite how transactional things have become, at Clemson, the staff still believes it’s a relationship-driven business, and they are looking for players who share that same vision.

“Seven years ago, if you would have told us this is how it is right now, we would not have believed it,” Clements added. “But a lot of the things have stayed the same too. A ton has changed, but recruiting is still relationship first, so there are a lot of similarities, but it has changed a ton.”

Now that the sport has adopted a revenue-sharing model, money is always going to be a part of the equation. And when money is involved, there is always a possibility of a school coming in and outbidding you for a player you thought you had a good shot at landing.

“It sucks obviously, but we are never going to lose sleep over a guy that we don’t get,” Clements said. “We are going to be excited about the guys we do get. Certainly, there have been some times when we have lost on guys, and you got to pivot and figure out something else. We are not going to waste a bunch of our time sitting there fussing about someone we didn’t get. We are just going to move on.”

No matter how much the landscape changes, or even how quickly, Clemson is always going to lean on the relationships. It has served the Tigers well for the most part up to this point, and Clements doesn’t see any reason to change now.

Again, that doesn’t mean money doesn’t factor in, because it does. It’s just not the part of the process that the Tigers lead with.

“I still truly believe, especially here, it is relational first,” Clements said. “There is a transactional piece of it, too. Look at the guys on our team and the way we have been able to maintain our roster. You can tell that we are doing something from the relational side first. I’m not too surprised where it is now. Through the years, to get where we are now, it seems like it is tracking along. Hopefully, we are going to get in a better spot here soon, which I think we will.”

At the end of the day, it’s all about the players you get, not the ones you miss on, and that is exactly how Clements chooses to see it.

“I do, I really do,” Clements said. “I love the guys on our roster. I think we get the right guys. We get the right fits here. I think the fans can see that too.”