OT Isaiah Battle Commits to Clemson

Isaiah Battle, a 3-star (rivals, #38 position) 6'7 270lb tackle from Virginia committed to Clemson today at Swinney's camp. He was recruited by Andre Powell. He has only official offers from New Mexico and ECU, but Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Georgia are showing interest and may offer him soon. He's one of those guys who needs significant coaching and his football training has been pretty low.

Basically he's a project, and the main misgiving here is WHO we have to train him. His frame is huge and his speed is very good (4.83 40), he's strong, but needs coaching. He plays at a prep school and is a raw prospect who will need to redshirt a year and probably sit one more, but that's what you want at OL anyway. His film below is at DE, and I haven't seen much at OT, so i'll just go by Bartow's assessment here.

His football IQ is low and he’s barely even scratched the surface in any regard. In position drills that’s noticeable. They did a lot of stuff he’s never even done before. Battle’s ability to bend is questionable, doesn’t use extension of his blessed long arms and seems very uncomfortable moving/bending.

As the morning went on and they got into 1-on-1s, that’s where you can see small samples of his upside. He didn’t go on the ground once and got the better of all of the defensive linemen he faced. But again, he’s very, very raw and his best ball is way ahead of him. Physically he looks like Trevor and Devin Booker a little bit.

What you like about Battle is that he’s barely scratched the surface, is an athletic big, an upside guy and as a guy standing and watching next to me this morning put it mildly ‘you can $hit out something that big.’ Has the size and length you ideally want for the left tackle position.