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1. Call it the Clemson bump, if you will.
But there’s more to it than the negative connotation of entitlement the phrase tends to carry in recruiting parlance.
In the aftermath of Philadelphia (Penn.) St. Joseph 2021 linebacker Jeremiah Trotter’s commitment a week ago, there was some discussion on The West Zone message board – debate might paint too strong a picture – as to whether a program of Clemson’s level should be taking three-star linebacker-types at this stage.
Fast forward to Friday night, and we have regional analyst Adam Friedman on location at Trotter’s game, chiming in that the 5.7 high-three star has been underrated, and the ranking will be adjusted once the network rolls out its next update after the season.
Getting into the value of rankings after a sophomore season as well as the specifics of Trotter’s case is moot for this exercise.
But bigger picture, Clemson's coaching staff will have kicked off its 2021 recruiting class with three straight prospects who will be four-stars.
If you want another measure for how the Tigers’ recruiting has taken off – as if two National Championship rings wasn’t math enough – look over the last decade at their percentage of signees ranked four-star or higher by Rivals.com.