The biggest uncommitted target currently on the Clemson board is getting closer to a decision.
Five-star LB Tyler Atkinson (Grayson, GA) publicly released his four finalists on Wednesday, with Clemson, Georgia, Oregon and Texas each making the cut. Those are the four schools that got official visits from Atkinson, so those are the schools most have assumed he was working with at this juncture.
Atkinson never released a schedule of official visits, choosing to reveal each stop the week of. Clemson got the first one, followed by Oregon and Georgia, with Texas getting the final official. Most assumed Ohio State would get that last one, but Atkinson instead pulled off a surprise and headed to Austin.
“It was the meaning of feeling like a priority,” Atkinson told TCI after his Clemson official visit. “Coach Dabo is a different kind of coach. I can tell he genuinely wants me there because of how I play the game and the role I can play there. But more importantly, because the type of person I am. That means a lot. I can see he leads the team and program with his heart.”
Arguably the nation’s top linebacker, Atkinson still has not released a commitment date, but he has been expected to announce at some point before the end of summer, possibly before the end of July. He told On3 that an announcement could be “coming soon,” so that timeline would seem to still track.
As for where he eventually ends up, Atkinson and his camp have done a really good job of limiting the information that comes out, so it is difficult to get a good read on which way he might be leaning. Being from Georgia, the Dawgs have always been viewed to have the sentimental pull and far more often than not, Kirby Smart tends to win out on the players in that state he really wants.
However, Texas should never be discounted, and for obvious reasons. Atkinson has spent a lot of time recently in Austin doing some training. Having said that, Clemson did just beat out the Longhorns head-to-head for four-star DE Dre Quinn.
At the end of the day, this one will come down to which school Atkinson sees as the best fit. There are a lot of things about the Clemson program that he likes. The culture being one of the big ones. He has also been impressed with the Tigers’ plan for how to handle his branding. That doesn’t mean he’ll end up at Clemson, but it does provide some insight as to why the Tigers are a finalist.
“What really stood out to me was the ‘AtkNup Plan’ they put together for me,” Atkinson said in a previous interview. “They showed me in detail their vision for me there. From getting my degree in three years, my role in the defense that coach (Tom) Allen is bringing, how they can help grow my brand, to everything else.”
No matter how this plays out, first-year linebackers coach Ben Boulware deserves a lot of the credit for Clemson being in this thing. Late last year, the Tigers were an afterthought in this recruitment. Once Wes Goodwin was let go, Tom Allen was hired and Boulware promoted, things changed. One of Boulware’s first stops during the contact period in January was in to see Atkinson.
Boulware would end up making multiple stops to check in on Atkinson, getting him to campus for the first time in more than a year for the Elite Retreat in March. He then was back for the big official visit weekend in early June. Win or lose, Boulware has done a tremendous job here, proving what most already thought we knew. That he certainly has the chops to make an excellent recruiter.
Photo courtesy of Tyler Atkinson on Instagram