Safety Tyler Venables Commits to Clemson

Clemson secured a verbal commitment from 3-star safety Tyler Venables this morning. Venables currently plays at DW Daniel high school in nearby Cenrtal, SC and is 5-10, 191 pounds. He is the #67 ranked safety in the 2020 class per the 247Sports Composite and the #1043 player overall. Venables picked Clemson over other offers from Wake Forest, Nevada, Jacksonville State, and Coastal Carolina. Venables offer list doesn’t necessarily match the athleticism and talent level he shows on film - likely due to his last name. Venables inclusion in the 2020 class has been a much welcomed, foregone conclusion, for some time now.

Venables’ commitment continues the family’s tie to the university. Tyler will join his brother Jake on the defensive side of field and will be coached by his father Brent. Clemson not only gains another talented prospect from this commitment, but also likely secures one of the nation’s best defensive coordinators on the coaching staff through at least the 2024 season.

Make no mistake, this is not a case of nepotism. Venables has posted D1 scholarship worthy testing numbers as recently as April. Those numbers included a 4.53 40 yard dash, a 4.40 shuttle, and a 34 inch vertical leap. His burst jumps off the film. Recruiting services officially list him as an athlete but he will be a safety during his time at Clemson. He plays QB at DW Daniel so his film makes it tough to evaluate how he’ll translate to the position at the next level. But, its fair to say the coaching staff has a good feel for the player in this recruitment. If he brings the tenacity that his brother and father have shown on the Clemson sideline and matches it with his natural athletic ability then Venables should grow into a solid defensive contributor over the course of his career.

Venables is the 17th commitment for Clemson’s #1 ranked 2020 recruiting class and the third defensive back take. He will likely be the final DB take in the class that includes blue chippers Fred Davis and RJ Mickens.

You can watch his highlights below and join us to celebrate in the comment section!

QT’s Take:

Tyler has a 4.53 laser timed 40 and a 4.4 shuttle with a 34.4 inch vertical like Ten Day said above and is the son of Brent Venables. This was always a no brainer. Those are not only solid testing numbers—they are pretty elite. When you couple that with his insane, impressive high school production at the QB position, you have a quality prospect.

He is easily the best player on the field when he plays for Daniel. He had 890 rushing yards and 28 touchdowns as the QB with 3006 passing yards for 26 touchdowns. That shows he has the athleticism and intellect to dominate high school football. As a freshman in HS he played defense with 2 interceptions and 44 tackles. He projects as a Safety in college and with his speed he can be a contributor down the road while starting off contributing on special teams.

The only question with Tyler is his height at 5’10 and if he was 6’0 he would be ranked much higher and viewed differently with regards to his potential as a recruit. Still, this is absolutely a legitimate offer in this class and shouldn’t be viewed as a 5 heart offer at all. Tyler Venables can play football and has dominated at the high school level. This also increases the chances that Brent Venables will stay at Clemson for the next four years to coach not one but two of his sons at Clemson during this ride of potential national championships. If TV (this needs to stick) wasn’t viewed as a Clemson lean his offer sheet would be much greater—with many other ACC teams on the list.

With 17 current commits there isn’t a lot of room left in this class, but look for Clemson to fill the remaining slots with two WR takes, a possible DE (Burch) and TE, and the best remaining players at positions of need (very selective and subject to Dabo approval). That puts the class at around 21-23, which is what we said would happen at the beginning of the recruiting season. The closer to 23 the better with the caliber of talent we can potentially bring to Clemson.

Congrats to TV and the entire Venables family!