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1. Times change.
Figuratively, literally, repeatedly -- interpret it however you want, and there's an application to recruiting.
Clemson sits on one commitment for the 2023 class and has not registered a pledge for exactly seven months. Yet it's not as if a spring drought is unprecedented; last year at this time, Cade Klubnik's pledge marked the only addition in a six-month stretch.
We can point out that the Tigers could have had a litany of commitments by now if they'd wanted them. But that's not the end game, nor is it necessarily a prudent strategy to take the best of what one can acquire early.
It's also fair to suggest Clemson doesn't have the Q Score it had in preceding offseasons and has been dealing with perception hurdles created through various issues.
These both can be true, and the latter has factored into the bottom line.
Yet we consider it likeliest that the most weight for Clemson's slow start should be placed on how the recruiting timeline appears to have changed across the college football landscape.
Spring games have typically represented a key date on the recruiting calendar. Clemson scored five off the event for the 2015 class, then racked up another five more off that surge the month after.
We've documented lately, though, how decisions are down across the board -- with essentially only one-fifth of prospects across several tiers having made commitments going into the weekend.
Only 14 power conference programs have more than five commitments. Florida, Ole Miss, UNC and Virginia Tech join Clemson with one. Alabama, Oregon, LSU and Auburn own two; Texas A&M, Texas and USC are in the same ballpark with three.
More will trickle in this month, for sure.
But that doesn't detract from the point: The advancement of preseason official visits is altering the clock.
During the pandemic, we coined a phrase about April Zooms bringing May blooms.
Well, the market now has suitors fighting for June dates to bring in their targets for expenses-paid official visits. Not to mention the advancement of NIL has added another layer to negotiation -- and arguably made it a wiser business move for various prospects to prolong bidding wars.
So how's about ... officials in June should mean clarity soon?
As you know, we first-reported in this feature a week ago that Dabo Swinney had opened the door for June officials -- but, naturally, in a manner consistent with how the Tigers recruit.
Thus a select group streamlined to one collective experience.
Within the framework of the Swinney era, there has been considerable fluctuation as to the timing of a class coming together.
In its earliest days, the groundswell came in conjunction with the Swinney Camp in June. Clemson grabbed eight commitments off of it for the 2012 class.
Another way to look at all this is these things go in cycles, and we're simply shifting closer to how the process came together a decade ago. For example, we see the volume of overall early commitments steadily go up and down based on returns and market correction.
The notion that Swinney, or by extension Clemson, won't change with the times has always been inaccurate -- if not often simply perpetuated by those who don't like them.
But they do so on their terms.
2. Part of the change -- or evolution, for those so inclined -- has been a shift away from funneling visitors to the spring game.
The spring game has its purpose for certain prospects. But there is arguably greater value to various targets for individual spring practice visits, especially those who have already soaked in a Clemson game atmosphere.
In that regard, the complexion changes when viewing the Tigers' spring recruiting efforts through the scope of which prospects traveled to see the school in March and April -- more so with a focus on which ones Clemson attracted over the final week or two.
As we've chronicled in last week's edition, Warner Robins (Ga.) four-star defensive tackle Vic Burley christened the stretch run with his trip the previous weekend.
Last week then kicked off with another appearance from Clemson's sole quarterback target ...
... who then returned unannounced for the spring game.
Birmingham (Ala.) Briarwood Christian four-star Christopher Vizzina (6-3, 205), ranked No. 54 nationally by Rivals.com, attended Monday's workout with his parents.
They all then traveled to be back for Saturday's festivities.
In the immediate aftermath of Monday's appearance, we shared via sources that while the visit went favorably, Vizzina wasn't ready quite yet to pull the trigger.
Vizzina didn't carry out the stated intent of going to UGA on Thursday.
Follow the visits.
Auburn did. It offered another quarterback Saturday.
We did not believe Vizzina, now a projection to Clemson by Tigerillustrated.com, would make it to official visit season.
Let's just say the embrace Vizzina gave Swinney's brother, Tracy, before kickoff further supported our stance.
In disclosing a top schools list Sunday, Vizzina revealed that he will have a commitment ceremony Tuesday at his school, starting at 4:15 p.m. Eastern time. The finalists: Clemson, UGA, Ole Miss, Auburn, Ohio State and Notre Dame.
Last September, we wrote that the Vizzina recruitment gave us Cade Klubnik vibes.
We don't read all the tea leaves accurately. But we got this one right from start to finish.
3. The recruited might have already turned into the recruiter, shall we say as well.
Any quarterback worth his salt will focus on connecting with offensive linemen -- which perhaps explains why Vizzina found his way to Belmont (N.C.) South Point four-star Sullivan Absher.
Absher (6-6, 300) released a final three a week ago composed by Clemson, Notre Dame and N.C. State.
The Wolfpack were a bit of a surprise inclusion over childhood favorite UNC, although Absher had just come off a visit to Raleigh.
Either way, our belief remains that this actually is a head-to-head contest between Clemson and Notre Dame.
The Irish got Absher's attention upon a late January visit and rode that visit high. Absher then returned to Clemson for its junior day in early March, and our sense was the needle swung back in the Tigers' favor.
This visit afforded Absher's father his first chance to spend time with the coaching staff, particularly Swinney. That meeting was preceded by breakfast with line coach Thomas Austin as well as tight ends coach Kyle Richardson, a South Point alum.
Based on our returns, the ease and comfort of the casual conversation between the staff and the Absher camp hammered home the family vibe for which Clemson appeals.
As we reported last week, our intel has pointed to Absher following through on a trip to Notre Dame's spring game April 23. Flights and hotels were booked; it's supposed to happen.
You're not a commitment if you're still visiting other schools, right?
We continue to like where Clemson stands. Even more so now, in fact.
4. About that June official visit weekend ...
We periodically have joked that Clemson need not look outside the Atlanta area for defensive backs. That's where you find volume, and where the Tigers have had considerable success.
One of the select few offered targets on hand Saturday was Alpharetta (Ga.) St. Francis four-star corner Branden Strozier.
Clemson offers an initial wave of prospects before their junior years, and fans want recruiting returns soon thereafter.
But Strozier (6-2, 175) is just another example for why, outside of a few targets, the Tigers wait until after junior seasons to set their course with most scholarship spots.
A solid all-star game showing in January got the ball rolling for Strozier, who had snagged an Arkansas offer the previous month.
Tennessee, Georgia Tech, Missouri, Wake Forest and Kentucky jumped in, and then more of the big boys raised eyebrows over a corner with his specifications. Strozier visited Florida at the end of January and drew an offer. Florida State responded two weeks later.
Alabama attracted him and offered a week before the first Clemson visit, and Strozier made a second sojourn back to Tennessee for a practice at the end of last month.
Corners coach Mike Reed reached out in January, and Clemson offered at its March 12 junior day. UGA also brought him in for a visit last month.
This has formed into a three-team competition between Bama, Tennessee and Clemson. That said, we aren't sure the Tide will be ready to be full-go on Strozier by the time this one is decided.
In our eyes, it's Clemson versus Tennessee. Which had a hand in the Tigers pushing the last week to get Strozier back before the spring concluded.
Strozier returned with his parents and got to see more of the campus than he did the previous visit, specifically the dorms. The trip also gave him a taste for Death Valley and at least an idea of what a game would feel like.
Per our intel, Strozier is now on the books to be in Clemson for its June 3-5 official visit weekend -- joining, as we've previously reported, Coppell (Texas) four-star corner Braxton Myers.
Tennessee is on deck with an official visit two weeks later.
We will have to wait to see if Strozier's recruitment makes it that far.
5. Beyond several prospects approaching the finish line, arguably the biggest move Saturday came with Clemson getting out of the starting gate on another rising junior.
Atlanta (Ga.) Pace Academy four-star defensive tackle Hevin Brown-Shuler cited a new offer directly from his conversation with Swinney -- which would be Clemson's second for the 2024 class, joining the initial one dispensed to Jefferson (Ga.) four-star linebacker Sammy Brown last month.
Brown-Shuler (6-4, 290), ranked No. 27 overall, owns offers from UGA, Ohio State, Florida State, Florida, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Texas A&M, Tennessee and others.
We can see why the Tigers pulled the trigger in terms of talent as well as competition.
This is the second coveted prospect in UGA's relative back yard that Swinney has offered before the team's standard opening date for young prospects.
Brown-Shuler was born in Columbia, S.C., and still has family in Gamecocks' territory.
We also believed Brown-Shuler had a strong connection with former defensive tackles coach Todd Bates and thus was one of the Sooners' first offers upon Brent Venables' hiring in December.
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Brown-Shuler has been on campus several times, and the special designation of being an uncharacteristically early offer has given Clemson at least a temporary bump.
Yet this is a recruitment that has flashed the probability for impressionable twists and turns and is a long way from resolution.
Time will tell if Clemson benefits.
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But we do know the door has opened for UGA, South Carolina, Ohio State and a few others to hammer the Tigers with several big-name 2024 prospects they haven't offered, and our understanding is those specific competitors are wailing away.
6. Clemson also conveyed a pair of new offers for this class Saturday.
The one we foreshadowed went to Austin (Texas) Vandegrift high-three star offensive lineman Ian Reed.
Reed (6-6, 308) picked up offers two weeks ago from Alabama and Tennessee. His stock didn't take off until Texas offered in January, after which Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Arkansas, USC and N.C. State came to the table.
There's more to this one than meets the eye, though.
As we chronicled, Swinney and offensive coordinator Brandon Streeter traveled in December to watch five-star quarterback Cade Klubnik's high school playoff game.
Vandegrift happened to be Klubnik's opponent. And their presence got Reed's attention.
The first college football game Reed remembers watching was Clemson's 31-14 victory over South Carolina in 2008. The Tigers have had a sentimental spot in Reed's heart since.
Reed reached out to Clemson to express interest earlier this year, and the ball got rolling.
We would opine that like Absher, Reed projects as a lineman who plays like a guard but could work at tackle.
Reed has visited Texas and Texas A&M this spring and will go to Ohio State on Tuesday. A trip to Alabama this summer is loosely planned, as we know offensive linemen aren't actually takes until Nick Saban has signed off on evaluating them at camp.
We expect Clemson to make Reed's eventual top five, and he anticipates returning this summer at some point.
It's good to have options.
