Clemson Commit Will Shipley Signs Letter of Intent to join Class of 2021

The lone 5 star in Clemson’s 2021 class, Will Shipley has signed his letter of intent to join the Tigers in 2021. Shipley is the second running back to join the class, but given his skillset he is an excellent complement to Mafah. Shippley will arrive at Clemson weighing 198 lbs and measuring 5’11”. As mentioned he’s a 5 star prospect with a .9866 rating from 247, good enough to be the top player at his position in the class.

The Tigers beat out Notre Dame for Shipley’s signature thanks to the effort by Tony Elliott. Danny Pearman was also involved and gets the assist on Shipley’s recruitment thanks to his upbringing in Matthews, NC.

QT’s take from his commitment:

Landing Shipley is a huge get for this class. He can give Clemson an elite weapon to move around on the field. He can line up and break some tackles going through A gaps, attack the edges and beat safeties down the field with that 4.46 laser timed speed, and also catch the ball consistently out of the backfield. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Mafah take so early in the recruiting calendar (and I personally liked Cody Brown when he worked out at Dabo’s camp last summer), but Shipley makes that all a moot point.

He dominates the competition in high school in NC. Just dominates. Good vision and knows how to run behind blocks at an advanced level for a high school running back. His calves are huge. He can even block! Where could he improve? Maybe he could develop a bit more open field wiggle and lateral quickness, but I like a runner who sees an angle and shots a gap without dancing. The only concern is that this might be his peak level of performance right now—he is physically developed and has put in the hard work to get to this level (very hard worker). But that also means that he isn’t a boom or bust prospect (athletic clay to mold) and should give you above average production regardless with the ability to potentially progress into elite RB Clemson territory. Clemson hasn’t had a complete, dynamic RB coming in prepared like Shipley in a long time.