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1. It’s not when you get them, but whom you get.

We find ourselves repeating this periodically through the course of a recruiting cycle. Fans want commitments, and when the team gets them, then they want more. But there’s only so much room and a long time to fill it – so there tends to be ebbs and flows in commitment acquisition, even for those programs who employ the cutthroat approach of catch-and-release if a bigger fish comes along.

Entering the season, we were fielding some questions about when Clemson would score its first 2021 pledge. After all, 35 of the other 69 power conference schools already had at least one junior commitment – and the reigning national champions should have some pull, no?

Fast forward one month later, and how the picture has quickly changed.