The bar has now been set.

4-star OL target Hardy Watts (Dexter, Brookline, Ma) took his first official visit to Clemson earlier this week, coming in on Sunday before leaving out early Tuesday morning.

Due to a scheduling conflict, Watts was not able to make it in on Friday when most of the other uncommitted targets came in, but the Tigers’ coaching staff was still able to create a little magic for the blue-chip talent.

“I had a meeting with almost every member of the staff and program. I had a meeting with the president of the university,” Watts told The Clemson Insider. “It was an honor and great time. Went to coach Swinney’s house, and got to go to coach Luke’s house. It was a great, great, really awesome weekend. The hospitality that I experienced was unlike any experience before. Just really felt like a family.”

“They definitely set the bar and I’d say that they’re the standard.”

Watts finally had a chance to sit down for an extended time with offensive line coach Matt Luke, and it went so well that he knows he would enjoy playing under the tutelage of Clemson’s first-year assistant.

“I got the chance to sit down and talk a little ball with him,” Watts said. “His football knowledge, and the way he kind of says, ‘Oh this is what’s going to happen, this guy’s going to go here, but look at his stance here. He’s going to step here.’ Stuff like that. I mean, he was calling the plays before they even happened. I was just sitting there, because I have the high school knowledge of football, not his knowledge of football. It was amazing for me to see, and experience what it’s going to be like if I were to play for him.”

While Watts readily admits there are some pros and cons to not getting to experience the full weekend with all of the other commits and uncommitted targets, he came away feeling those pros kind of outweighed the cons.

“There’s pros and cons to both,” he said. “The pros are, it’s a lot of more personalized one-on-one conversation, as opposed to a group. But at the same time, Clemson does one (summer) official visit. Those are the guys that are really serious about the school and it could be who I play with if I decide to commit there. I would have loved to have gotten to meet some of the guys over the weekend, but at the same time, the type of person that Clemson recruits, I know that they’re all great people. So I’m not worried about the type of people I’d be interacting with if I were to go there.”

Wisconsin, Duke, Boston College and Michigan are all still set to get officials and Watts is eyeing an early July decision. And as he goes through these last few visits, Watts is anxious to see if any of his other suitors will be able to match the culture at Clemson.

“It checks all the boxes. All the boxes are checked,” Watts said. “Clemson set the bar. And I think it’ll be interesting to see how other schools compare. Because I was just absolutely amazed and blown away by the generosity and the hospitality and quality of the people at Clemson.”

Photo courtesy of Hardy Watts on X (formerly known as Twitter)