Clemson Football: 4-star DB Jordan Hancock decommits. What’s next?

4-star DB Jordan Hancock decommits from Clemson football

The 2021 Clemson football recruiting class took a major blow Tuesday evening when 4-star DB Jordan Hancock decommited from the program.

Hancock, who is rated as the No. 6 cornerback in the nation, committed to the Tigers back in March following an unofficial visit. He joined his high school teammate Barrett Carter, a 4-star LB,  but ultimately decided to decommit following an opening at cornerback for Ohio State.

Though Hancock’s offer was always considered commitable at Ohio State, the Buckeyes recently had an opening in the defensive backfield that made many believe Hancock- who had maintained a good relationship with OSU- the top target.

It’s certainly not a loss that Clemson football fans wanted to hear about and it does hurt the class much more, at least in my opinion, than Korey Foreman’s decommitment a couple of months ago.

Hancock was in line to be competing for playing time in relatively short order and now there is a hole in this Clemson 2021 recruiting class as the Tigers look to fill some major needs in the defensive backfield.

What’s next for Clemson football?

The Tigers will likely keep a phone line open in case Hancock changes his mind, but it seems like almost a foregone conclusion that he wants to be a Buckeye.

With that in mind, Clemson now has no commitments at the cornerback position in a year where they likely need to take two.

The Tigers extended an offer to 4-star CB Kamari Lassiter following Hancock’s decommitment, but they’ll have some ground to make up if they want to pick up the prospect from Alabama.

The major names to watch at the position now are 5-star Ga’Quincy McKinstry, 4-star Nyland Green, 4-star Jason Marshall and potentially 4-star Nathaniel Wiggins, though there would need to be some work done to get back into his recruitment.

It seems the Tigers are going to focus on McKinstry, Green and Marshall while continuing to see what may form with Lassiter and Wiggins down the stretch.

There’s no denying that this is a loss for Clemson football recruiting, but Dabo Swinney has done an excellent job in the past of overcoming adversity on the recruiting trail and there’s really no doubt he’ll do it again before it’s all said and done.