Locking down in-state talent is essential on the recruiting trail. This will be difficult for the Clemson football program in the 2019 recruiting cycle, due to the lack of blue-chip prospects from South Carolina.
The Southeastern region of the United States is known for producing elite high school football prospects. That being said, the state of South Carolina is struggling to live up to that reputation in the 2019 recruiting cycle.
A blue-chip prospect is a player listed as a 4-star or better by the major recruiting services. There are only two blue-chip prospects from the state of South Carolina in the 2019 recruiting cycle, Zacch Pickens and Jamario Holley.
This lack of blue-chip recruits is directly reflected in the amount of scholarship offers Clemson has extended to 2019 prospects in their own backyard.
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2019 Recruiting Board
The only 2019 prospect from the state of South Carolina to hold an offer from Clemson football at the moment is the aforementioned Pickens. Given Pickens is a 5-star prospect, that’s a no-brainer.
The Tigers have doled out the same amount of offers in non-traditional recruiting hotbeds like Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Dabo Swinney and his staff are hitting neighboring states such as Georgia and North Carolina the hard in this 2019 recruiting cycle. Clemson’s staff has also extended nearly two dozen scholarship offers to prospects from the state of Florida.
The previous statistics were gathered from 247sports.com
Clemson’s Recruiting Tactics
Clemson one of the more meticulous programs in the country from a scouting standpoint. While they will certainly express interest in a prospect early on, they do not rush to offer recruits simply based on their amount of stars.
Clemson’s staff will hold off on offering a prospect, to ensure that they are a good fit both schematically and culturally.
Next: Tigers making a recruiting push in Louisiana in 2019
With all that said, there’s more than enough time for the Tigers to offer in-state prospects. If there are any underrated 2019 prospects in the Palmetto State, Clemson’s staff is sure to identify them in the coming months.