Clemson football: No one has developed 5-stars better than Tigers & Alabama

The Clemson football program has done as good of a job as any at developing and getting the most out of their 5-star’s talent.

Though we all know that not every 5-star turns out to be a first-rounder, there’s certainly potential as they step onto campus no matter where they decide to go to school.

247 Sports looked at the development of 5-stars from every program around the country and came to one conclusion: Alabama and Clemson are lapping the field.

According to the data set forth by 247 Sports, the Clemson football program has had 92.3 percent of its 5-star drafted and that is the highest percentage of any program in the country. The Tigers have also seen 36.4 percent of their 5-stars drafted in the first-round. Alabama leads the country in that figure with an unreal 48.8 percent of its 5-stars being selected in the first-round.

Here’s what 247 Sports’ Chris Hummer had to say about Clemson:

"“If you’re wondering why Clemson is a two-time national champion in the College Football Playoff era, a stat like this one is a great place to start. Dabo Swinney has been at Clemson for 13 years, and he’s lapped the field with his consistency of sending five-star players to the NFL. Clemson’s first-round hit rate isn’t that far off the Tide either. Tee Higgins was the No. 33 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Had he gone one spot earlier, the Tigers’ first-round percentage would sit at 46.1%. Alabama is in a class of its own in terms of five-star production, especially when you consider volume. But Clemson isn’t far behind,” Hummer wrote."

The culture of Clemson football sets the Tigers apart in a major way

Clemson football fans pride themselves on talking about the developmental culture that the Tigers have and the way that the coaching staff goes about finding its talent.

The Tigers don’t take every 5-star like many others do. Instead, they look for players that fit into their culture and that sometimes means taking a 3-star over a 4-star or a 4-star over a 5-star.

That being said, we shouldn’t overlook the amount of development that the Tigers have been able to do when they do get a 5-star commitment.

We’ve seen basically almost every single 5-star that has come through this program go on to be drafted and more than one-third of them go on to be drafted in the first-round. That’s an extremely high rate and something that Tiger fans should be proud of.

What sets Clemson apart? It’s the culture.

Looking for those players that fit into the program in more ways than just football means that you’re going to get prospects who want to improve. They want to be coached and they want to get better. That makes the coaches’ development job much easier as a result.