Brayden Jacobs knew early on in the recruiting process that Clemson was where he wanted to be.

Throughout the process, Jacobs made many visits to campus, and it was on that initial one, during his sophomore season, that he began to know.

“Honestly, when I came to Clemson during my sophomore year, I didn’t even have an offer yet, I was thinking this is the place for me,” Jacobs said. “But I didn’t have an offer yet because they have really specific recruiting rules that they follow. Once I got the offer, I felt really good.”

However, even though Clemson felt like home very early on, Jacobs needed to be sure.

“I told my family I really like Clemson, and they were like, ‘Well, we want you to go through the rest of the recruiting process because you need to give every school a fair chance,’ which I agreed with,” Jacobs added. “I couldn’t just shut my recruitment down as soon as I visited one school.

The 6-foot-8, 355-pound offensive lineman would go on to collect close to 30 offers, with many coming from some of the bigger programs in the country, including Georgia, Florida State, LSU, Miami, Ohio State and Texas.

However, in the end, it would be Clemson. Dabo Swinney adding veteran assistant Matt Luke to the staff in December 2023 only reinforced how Jacobs felt. About six weeks later, during the 2023 Elite Retreat, Jacobs committed to the Tigers.

Jacobs signed last December as the second-highest rated recruit in the 2024 recruiting class, and he’s hoping he can become one of Luke’s next first-round picks in the NFL Draft.

“They take a select amount of spots. They don’t let 90 people commit to the team at the same time,” Jacobs said. “They had three other linemen committed, and they were taking five that year. Coach Luke had just come in, and I had seen the production he’s put in the NFL. Laremy Tunsil is one of the best tackles I have ever watched. Coach Luke coached him, and that gave me a lot of confidence to commit here and know that I could be like him one day.”

Photo by Bart Boatwright