Clemson football: Tigers’ next LB target might be an in-state product

The Clemson football coaching staff has been careful about its evaluations and recruitment of linebackers since the loss of 4-star LB Jalon Walker.

Walker was considered to be a heavy Clemson lean for the vast majority of his recruitment, but as we approached just weeks until his decision things began to change. The 4-star ultimately chose the Georgia Bulldogs over the Tigers and the Clemson football program was left to go back to the drawing board.

In this 2022 cycle, Clemson has offered just four linebackers and three of them (all but Walker) remain uncommitted:

• 4-star Shawn Murphy
• 4-star Daniel Martin
• 4-star TJ Dudley

At this point, there has been very little to indicate that Clemson football is in the lead for any of those prospects, but there is still hope as we head into the end of the NCAA Dead Period.

If they don’t work out, the next major Clemson football target at the linebacker position might be an in-state product

Though Clemson hasn’t formally given an offer, the Tigers are heavily evaluating and recruiting 3-star Deuce Caldwell, a prospect from Mauldin, SC.

Caldwell is the teammate of 5-star CB Jeadyn Lukus- a priority target in the 2022 class– and he has been playing safety at the high school level. That being said, he stands at 6-foot-1 and 210 pounds and many analysts believe he will profile as a linebacker at the next level.

The Tigers are looking for a linebacker who can play multiple positions and fill that role of Nickel/SAM. Brent Venables has consistently been recruiting more athletic linebackers in the past few recruiting cycles as a way to help the defensive backfield and compete against this age of offensive passing attacks.

Caldwell, who has the athleticism of a safety and the potential physicality of a linebacker, could be the perfect fit.

He is currently rated as the No. 105 linebacker in the nation and the No. 16 overall player from the state of South Carolina.