Clemson Summer Football Camps Lead to Scholarship Offers: Recruiting Roundup

Spring evaluation period is over. Fall camp still feels like an enternity away. The Summer dead period is upon us ladies and gentlemen. Since you’ve probably been beating the same Clemson Football related topics to death around your figurative (or perhaps literal) water coolers, here are few new updates from the recruiting world to spark some new conversation.

My colleague Drew put out a recruiting roundup for you guys here on Shakin’ The Southland last week, and I am going to take a page out of his book and start off with the bad news. That way we can end on some positive notes!

Stray Tigers:

Two highly rated recruits and Clemson targets decided to shut down their recruitment and commit to their respective schools last week. Unfortunately the Tigers missed on both. ILB Teradja Mitchell, a one time high Clemson target out of Virginia Beach, VA committed to Ohio State last Friday, and safety Leon O’Neal Jr out of Cypress, TX pulled the trigger on Texas A&M the same day according to their respective Twitter accounts. We’ll keep the bad news section brief.

On to the good stuff!

Campers and Offers:

Hundreds of campers descended upon Clemson University this past week for the first session of Dabo Swinney’s Summer football camps. Plenty of great young athletes showed up to work out with members of Clemson’s coaching staff and both current and former players alike. Three campers were extended scholarship offers:

Jacob Lacey: 6’2” 295 lb DT in the 2019 class out of Bowling Green, KY (South Warren). Lacy already has some impressive offers as a rising high school junior, with Clemson’s offer marking his 12th to date. The #8 DT and #125 overall player according to 247 Sports had rave reviews about his experience with his family in Clemson on social media, and has said publicy that the Tigers are very high on his list.

BT Potter: 5’11” 170 lb K in the 2018 class out of Rock Hill, SC (South Pointe). Picked up a Clemson offer on Wednesday. More on him below.

Aidan Swanson: 6’2 165 lb P/K in the 2019 class out of Tampa, FL (Jesuit). A player who calls Clemson his “Dream School” received a preferred walk-on offer from coach Swinney personally this week. Swanson competes in top specialized kicking camps, and has an absolute cannon for a left leg. He projects as a punter and kick-off specialist for the Tigers.

Brannon Spector: 6’1” 185lb ATH out of Calhoun, GA (Calhoun). Spector picked up his 3rd offer from the Tigers after impressing coaches this week. You may recognize the name from his brother, current Clemson LB Baylon Spector. If you’re perhaps a little older, you may recognize the name from his father, former Clemson WR Robbie Spector who played from 1987-90. Brannon is a true Clemson legacy who is VERY high on the Tigers.

About that kicker...:

BT Potter wasted very little time in letting the Clemson coaching staff know how he felt about his offer. He committed just hours later. Potter (can we all just agree now as a fan base that we are better than the Harry Potter jokes?) attends the same high school as fellow Clemson commit Derion Kendrick. A quote from his commitment statement on Twitter reads (about playing for Clemson): “This has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember”. Recruits who have Clemson as their dream school is becoming a bit of a theme in this article. Potter also currently holds offers from Kentucky, South Carolina, and Virginia Tech. I’ll admit; I was surprised at first to see that this offer was not a greyshirt or preferred walk on, but a full offer. It had nothing to do with lack of talent, just a lack of available scholarships in this small 2018 class. However I believe BT could potentially fill an area of need for Clemson, and turn a weakness of ours into a strength. According to Chris Sailer’s website that ranks over 300+ kicking prospects, only the Top 20 receive a perfect 5.0 rating. Potter was in the Top 10. As a junior he put 95 of 105 kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks, and showed range from 60+ yards on field goals. This Clemson ‘18 class is full of elite players, and Potter is right where he belongs.

Two big visitors:

Composite 5* WR Justyn Ross visited Clemson on Friday with his mother. He’s a major Clemson target. 4* ATH Kyler McMichael also came to campus over the weekend.