CLEMSON – Christopher Vizzina had a busy junior year of high school.

The quarterback, a former Top-100 prospect in the 2023 recruiting class, spent his third year at the helm of his high school’s offense throwing for 16 touchdowns and rushing in for another 15, leading the Briarwood Lions of Birmingham, Ala., to a 10-2 record.

In between the victories, when he was not conducting the Lions’ band after big wins, the signal-caller was busy picking up a hoard of Power 4 collegiate offers – 29 of them to be exact.

Of those 29 schools, which included the likes of Michigan, Georgia and Miami, Vizzina visited only five programs–Ole Miss, Florida, Tennessee, Auburn and Clemson–in an unofficial capacity. 

Ole Miss, led by then-head coach Lane Kiffin, received Vizzina’s very first visit ahead of his junior year. The 6-foot-4 athlete was the seventh-highest quarterback that Kiffin and his staff offered in the 2023 class, just behind future Texas quarterback Arch Manning, UCLA’s Nico Iamaleava and Oregon’s Dante Moore.

Vizzina returned to Ole Miss–this time with an offer–for the Rebels’ Junior Day in early March of 2022. After the visit, the veteran high school quarterback put Ole Miss, as well as five other schools, in a list of six finalists.

Just 38 days later, he committed to Clemson.

“Even though I didn’t want to admit it, I was always just thinking, ‘Man, Clemson has this, they do it this way,’” Vizzina told TCI back in June. “I didn’t really realize I was thinking about it that way until Coach [Dabo] Swinney kind of put me on the spot in the spring of ’22 because I was starting to really cut my list down.

“He was like, ‘Hey, you’ve been here five times, like what’s holding you back from committing?’ And then I started to really think about it, and I was like, you know, he’s right, and so I came back, I was on a visit, I think like April 9 or something, and I came back four days later to commit.” 

A lot has changed since Vizzina’s commitment to Clemson – in his life, in the general college football landscape and in Kiffin’s career path. 

For the last three years, the former 5-star recruit has been largely out of the headlines, backing up New York Jets quarterback Cade Klubnik for the Tigers, though he did make one start last season against SMU. Now in “pole position” to be Clemson’s first-string signal caller this season, it may finally be time to reap the benefits of choosing the Tigers, and remaining patient in a transfer-portal era.

“It just all comes down to me wanting to be here,” Vizzina said. “I don’t really care how other people view me. I know there’s negativity online. I mean, I’m not looking at it or anything, but it’s just how it is, but I’ve always wanted to be here.

“I want people to know this is the place I want to win at and I’m obviously still standing here. So that’s true. And I feel like all my teammates can see that with how I play.”

While Vizzina has been largely behind the scenes since picking the Tigers above other big-market programs, Kiffin has conversely dominated headlines, especially after leaving Ole Miss for the head coaching job at LSU during the Rebels’ College Football Playoff berth last year.

Through the drama, which has only been accentuated with copious recent lawsuits in his short tenure at LSU, Kiffin has not forgotten the tall high school junior from Birmingham that once sat across from him at his office in Oxford, Miss.

“I remember (Vizzina) from high school, actually watched him work out,” Kiffin said Monday. “Really talented, really throws well on the move.”

Though he verbally committed to Clemson and wanted to be a Tiger, Kiffin stayed in touch with Vizzina throughout the recruiting process, offering encouragement and following his high school career. Now, nearly half a decade since Vizzina last visited Ole Miss–and subsequently received an offer from LSU under a different coaching staff–it appears to all be coming full-circle for the senior. 

In just a few days, Clemson will head down to Baton Rouge, La., to take on LSU in Kiffin’s first game at the helm of the Bayou Bengals. Currently, Vizzina is expected to make his second career start against Kiffin’s purple-and-gold Tigers in a hostile, emotional environment.

Emotions aside, Vizzina has continued to stick to his paw-shaped guns in his commitment to Swinney and Clemson, and will get his first outright chance to prove both Kiffin and Swinney right in his potential as a Power 4 starter.

Imagine explaining that opportunity to high school junior Christopher Vizzina.