Jayron Kearse (6'4 205-210, 4.6 40), an athlete from Fort Myers FL, committed to Clemson today. He is rated a 4-star athlete, #228 overall in the nation by Rivals. He has already been an Auburn and a Miami commitment this year, but pulled off of each school, so I cannot say that I have warm fuzzies about him sticking with Clemson. The services are labeling him as an athlete, but Auburn recruits him as a WR and Clemson as a SS. Miami recruited him as a likely safety as well.
Kearse is pretty long, so I can see the usefulness at WR or as a big Safety to force the balls over. He also has pretty good hands and ball skills, as he played pretty much everywhere in HS, but more offense than defense. I think, if he fills out too much, that he might be a bit big for safety and will end up being used as more of a hybrid safety/LB role.
Unfortunately theres not a ton of film to look at on Kearse as a DB. I'm not sure he'd be as far along as a guy like Tankersley as a result, and will need a redshirt and good coaching to maximize his athletic ability. He has decent quickness, good speed, and pretty good ball skills, but theres not much to rate his backpedal or coverage skills with. I don't think this is a DMac lay-the-wood type of guy either. I thought Tankersley was more likely to be that type of hitter, but Kearse is not scared of hitting. So my final opinion on him is that he's a guy who needs seasoning at one and only one position to really maximize his abilities, and I'm not going to say his rating by Rivals is too high, but it would be generous to say he'd be rated a 4-star safety.
Kearse is the nephew of NFL All-Pro Jevon Kearse. His official recruiter is Tony Elliott. He is our 17th commit, 18th counting Tankersley's enrollment in January.