Clemson football: No reason to freak out about 2022 just yet

As we wrote about a few days ago, the 2022 Clemson football recruiting is off to a rough start. The Tigers currently have the 25th ranked class in the country and are behind 10 SEC programs and are third in the ACC behind Boston College and Florida State.

While this may sound alarming, Clemson football has the fourth highest-rated per player average at 94.08 and trails Alabama, UGA, and Ohio State in that area.

For reference the star-studded class of 2018 that saw the Tigers sign 5 five-star recruits including Trevor Lawrence had a per player rating of .934 and the 2020 class with 5 five-star recruits including Bryan Bresee and Myles Murphy only had a per player rating of .934 as well.

The Tigers are in a great position with on-campus visits allowed to start taking place in June and there are already several highly rated players that have announced they will be making the trip to Clemson to see what all the hype is about.

No one closes better than Clemson football head coach Dabo Swinney

Sure, over the years, Clemson football has lost its fair share of commits and will continue to do so but remember some of the best players to come through Death Valley were only here because of those decommitments.

With the NCAA opening back up the ability to host on-campus visits, we should expect the Tigers to jump back into the national conversation with a vengeance.

So far in the class of 2022, the Tigers have only extended just 63 total offers. Of those 63 offers, just 18 have gone to a player with a five-star rating according to 247Sports Composite. For reference, Alabama and UGa have both extended 200 offers, South Carolina has extended 201 offers, and Tennessee has extended 442 offers.

Of the 18 five-star players that have earned a Clemson football offer, 11 of them remain uncommitted for 2022. With just under seven months remaining until early signing day kicks off, that gives Swinney and his staff plenty of time to work their magic.

Don’t be surprised to see their efforts go toward the big three defensive tackles in the Class of 2022.

Walter Nolen, Travis Shaw, Gabriel Brownlow-Dindy, and Mykel Williams all have offers from the Tigers and while Clemson is not currently favored to land any of them, it would be hard to imagine that once they visit the campus, spend time with Tyler Davis and Bryan Bresee while also getting to know defensive line coach Todd Bates and defensive coordinator Brent Venables, that at least two of the four do not end up wearing orange and purple in their college careers.

While the overall numbers of this signing class don’t impress anyone currently, the talent is there. We know that talent attracts more talent as does winning.

After the Tigers embarrass UGA on national TV to start the season, expect their 2022 recruiting class to really take off and rocket up the overall ratings. There is no reason that Dabo should not finish with another Top 5 nationally ranked recruiting class.