One of the top safeties in the 2028 recruiting class will make his first visit to Clemson this fall.
Four-star CJ Craig-James (Parker, AL) tells The Clemson Insider that he will be in attendance on October 3 when the Tigers host Miami in what could be a crucial ACC matchup.
Craig-James recently released a top schools list that included Clemson, despite him not yet having an offer. Auburn, Florida, Cal, Miami, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Alabama, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oregon and LSU were the other schools in his Top 12.
Once Craig-James makes it to campus, it will be the final box that needs checking before an offer can go out.
“Coach Swinney has a little different process on offering,” Craig-James recently told The Clemson Insider. “You’ve got to come on campus first. So, they are trying to get me to come on campus and make the offer official. The time didn’t work out right because we were still in school and stuff when they had the camps.”
Nick Eason made a stop by Craig-James’ school during the contact period, and once coaches could start contacting recruits in the 2028 class directly on June 15, the Clemson staff has been putting on the full-court press, with defensive coordinator Tom Allen leading the charge. That is a big part of the reason Craig-James felt more than comfortable putting the Tigers in his Top 12.
“My dad, he is real technical. He’s got this whole spreadsheet tracking calls from schools and who is reaching out,” he said. “When June 15 came, the whole staff was reaching out, and we thought it was standard because everybody was doing it, but their whole staff was reaching out. I expected it to fall off, but it did not happen like that. They kept doing it every single day. Coach Allen, the DC, personally called. And still to this day, every other day, he is going to call. Or coach Eason is going to call. Somebody from the staff is making sure they are intentional. They don’t just send generic text messages.”
Craig-James is one of the top players in the country, with the 247 Composite ranking the 6-foot-3 defensive back No. 73 overall and No. 7 among all safeties in the class. He also ranks as high as No. 4 in the state of Alabama. He currently has close to 40 offers in total.
