1. The calendar is now starting to fill in fast.

February is a dead period in recruiting, which means college coaching staffs can neither play host to prospects on campus nor travel to their sites for meetings or evaluations.

The first week of the month amounted to assessing the responses from the program's elite junior day. Then focus turned to this next version of the team convening for the first time for mat drills.

As we mentioned last week, Dabo Swinney had decided to bump the start of spring practice to a week later -- March 6 is the kickoff -- leading to the spring game coming a week later than last year as well, April 15.

So the Tigers had to get the word out.

In the process, Clemson saved the dates and began communicating several key events to the pertinent parties.

First it released the dates for the Swinney Camp, and this year's set-up matches what the staff debuted last year.

The Wednesday and Thursday (May 31, June 1) before the opening June weekend will showcase one-day camps. Then a week later, Clemson will hold its three-day camp over the weekend (June 9-11).

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That set the stage for what we'd been led to anticipate: The Tigers again holding their major official visit gathering the first weekend in June (2-4).

Why mess with success?

There will be a bunch of important visits during the spring.

Make no mistake, though, the end game is the official visit weekend.

Most of the maneuvering and posturing will be designed to build up to that function.