Clemson Football: Could losing Jeff Scott affect recruiting?

The Clemson football program will be losing a great coach in Jeff Scott, but could the loss of Scott also affect Tiger recruiting?

If you know anything about the Clemson football program, you know that Jeff Scott was instrumental in the recruiting of several big-time prospects to the Tigers.

It was announced Monday that Scott would be leaving Clemson football to become the head coach at the University of South Florida. Scott had been an assistant with the Tigers since 2008 when he took over as the Wide Receivers coach.

One of the major reasons Scott to USF is such a great fit is because of his strong recruiting ties to the state of Florida. Scott helped orchestrate some huge commitments from the state of Florida to Clemson during his time with the Tigers and the Bulls are hoping for something of the same result, maybe on a smaller scale, with him as their head coach.

That being said, we’ve had several Clemson football fans ask how Scott leaving might affect recruiting. The answer? It remains to be seen, but I wouldn’t be too worried.

In the 2020 cycle among commitments alone, Scott was instrumental in getting 5-star QB DJ Uiagalelei (secondary behind Brandon Streeter), 5-star RB Demarkcus Bowman (primary), 5-star DB Fred Davis (secondary), 4-star WR EJ Williams (primary), 3-star WR AJou Ajou (primary) and several others.

Though you can always see a de-commitment when a staff member leaves, it certainly doesn’t seem likely at this point for Clemson football. Dabo Swinney has set up his staff and his program to recruit towards the culture, not just the coach.

These players who are committing do build lasting relationships with the coaches who are recruiting them, but Swinney wants them to be committed just as much to the program and to the culture at Clemson, not just their position coach.

As a result, I don’t think we’ll see an affect in the 2020 recruiting class among currently committed players, but we could see 4-star WR Xzavier Henderson cool off on the Tigers down the stretch. That would likely explain Clemson offering an offensive line here late in expectation that Henderson is going to go elsewhere, though you never know for sure. On this subject, it should be noted that the Tigers already had two commitments at wide receiver and had cooled a little bit on Henderson before Scott was announced to be leaving anyway.

In terms of the future, it’s clear that losing Scott is a big blow. However, Clemson still has plenty of talented recruiters, including Tony Elliott and Brandon Streeter on the offensive side of the ball.

Streeter has been one of the top recruiters in the nation without much recognition, but he’s done an excellent job scouting out talent and hitting on the guys he wants the most. I expect that to be amplified as he steps into a bigger role with the Clemson football program.