Clemson Football Recruiting: Sean Pollard Commitment Thread

A couple months ago Sean Pollard (6'5 290) surprised a lot of people, myself included, by almost announcing for Duke. At the time a lot of signs were positively pointing towards our Tigers but a recent visit to Duke and push by their staff had Duke positioned to land an absolute steal. Clemson got him to hold off on the decision and come and visit the campus again. Sean and his family loved the additional time spent on the Clemson campus and enjoyed the bye date where they got to experience the small town atmosphere--getting the big time football environment but also the laid back local town feel. Pollard was dominant at the Dabo Swinney Camp where he quickly became the top O-line priority for the Clemson staff.

Hailing from Southern Pines, Pinecrest, North Carolina, the 4* Pollard is ranked in the top 200 players nationally (191 by Rivals, a high 3* by other services). This is prime recruiting territory for UNC, NC State and increasingly Duke so this reasserts our recruiting dominance in the ACC and Carolinas. More importantly this continues Clemson's streak of recruiting quality offensive lineman. Former Coach Morris and Coach Caldwell have both become disgruntled with some of our early takes in the recruiting cycle on the offensive line (i.e. RJ Prince, Taylor Hearn). This is not one of those takes. Pollard is a recruit to be excited about. Obviously he isn't a Mitch Hyatt (who is though?) caliber prospect or perhaps even a Fruhmorgan but Pollard is a quality player close to home.

What do we get with Sean Pollard? Pollard is an advanced run blocker and actually plays with good pad level for a player his height and size in high school. You can see a bit of a mean streak and he can be aggressive as a run blocker at times. Very competitive player who gets after it. Sean is an intelligent kid who will be able to handle the mental transition to the college level.

One area Pollard needs work on is pass protection. He has good not great athleticism and doesn't always get great extension. Where he projects will largely depend on how he improves in this area. Could play Tackle or Guard and worked out at both at camp. He has good enough feet to play either, gets to the next level of the defense. Overall a top tier player in the region and wonderful early get for Clemson. I don't see him wavering on his commitment.

Pollard joins TE JC Chalk and QB Zerrick Cooper as commitments to a solid 2016 foundation. Here are Hudl highlights.

Welcome to Clemson Sean!