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1. Some gifts keep on giving.

On various occasions, we’ve theorized how the College Football Playoffs have only served to widen the chasm between the haves and have-nots. That great players want to play with or follow the career trajectory of other great players. That winning therefore tends to breed more winning, and a cycle is born.

There are no guarantees, of course, as there are pieces to the puzzle that change. But it’s hardly coincidence Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State are veritable mainstays in the postseason and again represent three of this year’s four qualifiers.

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It’s the recruits you get and not the ones you miss on, as our refrain goes.

So as the Tigers prepare to travel to New Orleans this week, this stat jumped out at us:

Since the 2019 season kicked off, 20 of Clemson’s 25 commitments gained have wound up rated four stars or higher by Rivals.com – so a clip of four out of every five.

That’s a pretty favorable ratio.

There were several stretches over the last cycle when we entertained questions about Clemson losing recruiting momentum, or when Dabo Swinney would drastically alter strategy to adjust to the pandemic. All fair.

Commitments tend to come in spurts, while as we’ve characterized, each defeat feels magnified because of the slim recruiting board the Tigers keep.

Yet at the end of the day – e.g., the end of each signing period – Clemson has shown to still be Clemson, if not arguably a better version of Clemson recruiting than we’ve ever seen based on the consistency of the returns.

These juniors the Tigers are now courting were in the FIFTH GRADE the last time Clemson wasn’t in the playoffs.

History has a way of repeating itself.

2. Per our custom, we start this Insider by closing the book on Clemson’s latest acquisition.