Defensive Line Recruiting Analysis: Clemson vs ACC Atlantic 2006-Present

Today, we compare Clemson's defensive line recruiting endeavors to ACC Atlantic foes.  Assumptions made in creating this article can be found here.  I should point out that we strictly used www.scout.com position classifications.  It is possible that some players ended up at a different position ball after they arrived on campus for any of the schools in this article.

Table I and Figure 1 (below) both illustrate Clemson's ranking based on defensive line class size since 2006.  Clemson (at 3.83 players per class) recruited fewer defensive linemen than NC State (5.33 players per class) and Florida State (5.17 players per class).  The Tigers recruited more players than Maryland, Wake, and Boston College.  Overall, the average ACC Atlantic football program brought in 0.17 lineman (4.00 per class) more than Clemson did from 2006-present.

Notable items in this category are FSU's '11 class (8 defensive linemen), Clemson's seven total linemen in '07, and NC State's nine recruits in the 2009 class.  Clemson brought in four and five linemen over the past two seasons, respectively.

Table I:  Recruiting Class Size

Figure 1:  Individual Institution Recruiting Class Size

Figure 2:  Average non-Clemson vs Clemson Recruiting Class Size

Table II and Figure 3 show the average star-rating per player for each team, as shown below.  Clemson (3.63 stars/player) led the division in average star-rating.  Florida State had a nice group at 3.59 stars per player over the past six classes. Overall, Clemson was 0.63 stars per player better than the ACC Atlantic average.  The next closest team was Maryland at 3.18 stars per player.

Overall, there were 23 players signed by ACC Atlantic schools who graded out at four stars or greater by BOTH Rivals and Scout.  We are providing a list of these linemen in Table III below.  Clemson accounted for ten of these signings.  You notice that Corey Crawford is listed in both the '10 and '11 classes, so the CU signings only include nine actual players.  FSU brought in 11 players on the list and Maryland two.

Table II:  ACC Atlantic Team Average Player Star Rating

Figure 3:  ACC Atlantic Schools' Recruiting Average Player Star Rating

Figure 4:  Average ACC Atlantic vs Clemson Recruiting Class Average Player Star Rating 

Table III:  ACC Atlantic Four Star Players (for BOTH Rivals and Scout)

Clemson is below the ACC Atlantic average in terms of defensive linemen signed over the past six years.  CU was dwarfed by both NC State and FSU in this category, as each recruited over a lineman and a quarter more than the Tigers on average.  We'll note that NC State's 2.75 stars per player is well below CU's average.  Clemson lead the division in stars per player, and I think we can all agree that the quality on the defensive line front was excellent over this time period and only rivaled in-division by Florida State.  We would like to see Clemson get another quality lineman per class in to better compete with the ‘Noles.  Otherwise, we look good in this aspect of our recruiting strategy.