****Palmetto Bowl
This year’s edition of the longest running rivalry in the south
is all set as the Palmetto State gridiron titans meet on the turf inside
Williams-Brice Stadium in front of a prime-time television audience nationwide
on Saturday night.
The two schools have gone head-to-head for decades on in-state prospects
from all over the recruiting footprint of the two schools, and both schools have
had tremendous success in recruiting and developing countless Palmetto State
stars in more than a century of competition on the football gridiron.
This season is a little different, as the Tigers and Gamecocks
have had few head-to-head recruiting battles in the 2018 class, with the most
notable being the Clemson commitment of Xavier Thomas, who was believed to be
favoring the Gamecocks before deciding to commit to the Tigers. Since then, he
has been a recruiting juggernaut as he leads the 2018 class in promoting the
Tigers on twitter and social media.
2019 DE Demonte Capehart is a 2019 in-state prospect recruited by both Clemson and South Carolina
5-star 2018 DE K.J. Henry has both Clemson and South Carolina in his final
five
As it stands today, the only player left on the Clemson board
that has the Gamecocks in his final group would be K.J. Henry, and at this
point we feel it’s Clemson in the lead with Virginia Tech trailing and everyone
else (Alabama, Georgia and SCAR) all in the virtual rearview mirror at this
point. Henry has exhausted his official visits to each school and is now set to
announce his college of choice on December 20th before enrolling in
January. Incidentally, K.J. has become fast friends with Clemson commit Xavier Thomas,
and both players have visited Clemson together in the past on multiple
instances.
With the 2018 class virtually wrapped up, this game on Saturday
is all about the 2019 and 2020 in-state classes, with top-tier prospects from
all over the state attending to see the much-improved Gamecocks from Columbia
and the consistently nationally-relevant Tigers from Clemson go to battle once
again. The annual tradition that is well known in these parts as the “Battle of
the Palmetto State” meshes orange and garnett together over the green of the
turf in the midst of players who will one day don these same colors one
day.
****The Citadel Game Official
Visit Recap
5-Star WR Justyn Ross in Clemson gear
Clemson ..
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Lots of juicy news has been coming out of the big Official Visit
weekend this past Saturday, as the Tigers crushed the cadets from The Citadel
in front of a huge Military Appreciation Day crowd in Death Valley.
We had our ears to the ground all week since the game and gathered
a lot of interesting info regarding those in attendance—most notably vis a vis
5-star attendees Justyn Ross, Tyreke Johnson and Cade Mays.
First off, let’s talk about Ross. The Tigers’ #1 WR target—and
arguably top overall—for the 2018 class was in with his mom, who recently
returned from overseas deployment, to take in the Military Appreciation Day ceremonies
pre-game and also share his Official Visit to Clemson. We feel it’s the Tigers
from the Plains and the Tigers by the Lake vying for arguably the nation’s best
WR prospect. If you forced me today to predict which Tigers’ uniform he will
wear, I would say Clemson will be the victor.
Now switch gears to the 5-star stud Tyreke Johnson, a DB out of
Florida that took the time to visit the Tigers and was more than interested in
the Clemson scheme and its familiarity with big defensive backs out of the
Sunshine State, going back to the likes of NFL DB Jayron Kearse and current Clemson
corner Trayvon Mullen. The staff rolled out the Orange Carpet to Johnson, who
arrived just prior to kickoff and missed the pre-game festivities. With our
knowledge of his recruitment and what we gleaned out of his visit, the Buckeyes
of Ohio State are still leading, and the Clemson visit was nothing short of a
“courtesy visit,” one you can chalk up to a player who likes to take all his
officials.
However, there was a more than one potential commit up in the air
that we discussed this past week, and we feel that things have heated up substantially
with the Tigers and in-state OL prospect Jordan McFadden, so much so that we
are seeing this recruitment potentially coming to an end before the end of the
month. It’s a Clemson and Virginia Tech battle, as McFadden to this date still
remains a VT commit. But folks, this one is starting to trend Clemson Orange very
fast! Stay tuned, as this could go down real soon with info coming out of
Dorman High, where former Tigers Charone Peake and Adam Humphries played, as
does QB Ben Batson, son of longtime Clemson Strength Coach Joey Batson.
2018 Dorman High (Roebuck,SC) OL and VT commit Jordan McFadden
Now on to Lyn-J Dixon, the Tigers’ lone RB prospect left on the
2018 board to take an Official Visit, out of the Peach State of Georgia. Dixon was
offered after a long recruitment by the Clemson staff, but not before the staff
lost 5-star RB Zamir White to Georgia in early summer. Only then was the offer
dispensed to Dixon. He had committed to Tennessee took an unofficial visit
there back in the summer, but in the past month he has backed off his
commitment and now has decided to revisit offers from Clemson, Alabama and a
few others. Stay tuned here, as we are hearing the Clemson RB board may expand
in the upcoming days!
2018 RB prospect Lyn-J Dixon
Enjoyed the game with The Family
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Cade Mays left Tiger Town with two teams in the hunt for his
services. Before Mays arrived on Saturday, it was a Clemson and Georgia battle
for the 5-star OT. And as it stands today, it’s still the Tigers and Dawgs for
the one-time Tennessee commit. Mays, who still has an Official Visit set up for
Tennessee, may never see that come to fruition unless a new coach is named in
Knoxville in the interim. The big man has a December 20th announcement date
planned because he will enroll in January at his school of choice.
5-star 2018 OL Cade Mays
UGA is next up for the big man on the Official Visit docket, and
if he comes out of that visit with things still even, then look for the in-home
visits to be made by each team’s head man to swing the pendulum into the
direction of one or the other. 50-50 is
how we see it today, but Cade made a lot of friends among the 2018 Clemson commits
during his stay in Tiger Town this past weekend, and 5-stars tend to gravitate
toward playing with other 5-stars. So stay tuned right here to the Recruiting
Radar for all your 5-star updates in the next few weeks!
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****Recruits React on Twitter to The Citadel Game
Great visit at Clemson today. Thanks @ClemsonFB
@Coach_TElliott
for showing the love. @RecruitGeorgia
pic.twitter.com/RrVSb56RlQ
Enjoyed being in Death Valley today
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pic.twitter.com/zmUxtwGxR6
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Enjoyed my visit to Clemson yesterday great win for
Clemson pic.twitter.com/IlEuY9Qq6X
Great time at Clemson
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#ALLIN
pic.twitter.com/fzzDJ2GeJ0
Had a great time @ClemsonFB
this weekend. Thanks to the Clemson football family for hosting me pic.twitter.com/Q3PtppDjzI
@ClemsonFB
starting to feel more and more like home...... #clemson
#gotigers
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The Clemson recruiting visit was great! #clemsonfootball
pic.twitter.com/5ErosBvNJB
Awesome visit at Clemson today! Thank to coach Swinney
and his staff for having me out
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Had a great visit at Clemson today
????????????. Thanks so much for the love @CoachVenables
@CoachMalleo
@CoachAWarwick
@Clemson247
pic.twitter.com/KRP4VSrBLb
Great visit to Clemson this week. Thank you to all of
the coaches and players that made this experience special. Big things to come!
#ALLIN
pic.twitter.com/mGVdaLt767
Had another great visit at Clemson today! Always an
incredible experience! #ALLIN
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****3 Future Tigers Named USA Today All-Americans
2018 Clemson WR/ATH commit Derion Kendrick
USA Today released its annual High School All-American Team, and
the Tigers’ 2018 class is well represented, with no less than three commits on
the First Team!
This year’s Clemson recruiting class can claim Trevor Lawrence
(QB), Xavier Thomas (DE) and Derion Kendrick (ATH/WR) all being named First
Team All-Americans, to lead all schools. See the list below, and note that the
Tigers recruited no less than 9 of these listed players inside their 2018
recruiting boards, landing 3 of them! It’s a testament to how elite Clemson is
in the recruiting world today.
#Clemson
commits @atxlete
and @Trevorlawrencee
listed to @USATODAY's
Army Player of the Year list. https://t.co/Ur4ywiitiT
****KJ Henry and Cade Mays Announcements Pending
December 20th is s date that could bring an early Christmas to
Clemson fans and the staff, as two of the Tigers’ biggest remaining targets are
set to announce on that date.
5-star phenoms Cade Mays and K.J. Henry are both set to announce their college of choice on that date, and the Tigers look to factor into both of these players’ decisions. As of today, if you asked us to pick based on intel we have to date, Clemson fans will be ecstatic by the end of that day. But this is recruiting, and the time on the calendar between now and then can create story lines that can spin out 180 degrees, so stay tuned here to CUTigers.com for all your Mays and Henry updates as we quickly approach decision day for both of these top-tier targets!
****This Week’s Tweets
Thankful to be able to play this amazing game. If y’all
don’t have anything to do tomorrow, please come watch us as we play at Greer
for upper state. pic.twitter.com/JyV2SqArUQ
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, especially those who are
serving this country and can’t be with their families today
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Thankful to live, learn and play at the best place on
earth...
????????@ClemsonUniv
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—
Deandre Hopkins (@DeAndreHopkins) November
20, 2017
Clemson Bound!#Mid-Year#GreatnessContinues
pic.twitter.com/p5SduuprjV
Clemson ..
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Clemson University
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#BookietoClemson
https://t.co/BxaeDWLEbD
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Enjoyed being in Death Valley today
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pic.twitter.com/zmUxtwGxR6
She loves our new home
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#Clemson
pic.twitter.com/t53cEeivsu
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