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1. Clemson has reached the open date on its schedule. So with nowhere to immediately be Saturday morning, the coaching staff is expected to hit the road en masse for the only time during the fall evaluation period.
That might seem a bit odd, considering there are instances -- when the Tigers face an inferior opponent, or have a nighttime kickoff -- that would be logically opportune to travel on a Friday night.
But one point that is often overlooked is the restricted number of times coaches can be on the road.
NCAA rules give teams 42 evaluation days. But by their math, each coach on the road counts as a single day. So if you have seven coaches checking out games on a Friday, there goes one-sixth of the allotment already.
Thus coaches have to pick their spots a little more than is perceived.
Clemson's staff divides its tally to give the offense and defense 21 days apiece. Some coaches, like defensive coordinator Brent Venables and co-offensive coordinator Tony Elliott, tend to stay with the team. Others, such as co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott or corners coach Mike Reed, are sent out more frequently.
When you think about it, 21 is a small number when you factor in commitments in hand, remaining targets for this class and prospects the staff would like to eye for the next cycle on each side of the ball.
The in-person stops don’t carry significant weight in a recruit’s thought process. Yet it is compelling to monitor when and with whom coaches devote those finite resources.
2. So it always stood to reason this would be the week Clemson's staff made its advance on the nation’s top-ranked junior.
As we’ve reported, quarterbacks coach Brandon Streeter is scheduled to fly out late this week to spend time at Bellflower (Calif.) St. John Bosco, home to five-star quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei.
Uiagalelei (6-4, 240), ranked No. 1 overall by Rivals.com, cemented the bull’s-eye as Clemson’s next blue-chip quarterback target with his June visit during the Dabo Swinney Camp.
