After a run of recent recruiting successes, Clemson football suffered a setback Tuesday night.
In one of the worst kept secrets in recent memory Miami, Florida wide receiver Nathaniel Joseph decommitted from Clemson football Tuesday evening.
As I wrote almost a month ago, this is not a surprise and had been rumored for some time.
It’s a little bit of a downer, considering all the positive that’s been coming out of the big June recruiting weekend, but again nothing that was unexpected and my guess is the staff knew as much and is already working on what’s next.
For his part, here is what Joseph said:
"“After talking things over with my family, we feel it’s best for me to decommit and reopen my recruitment,” Joseph said via social media. “I want to thank Clemson and all of Clemson’s staff for showing me love day in and day out. I want to thank coach (Tyler) Grisham for all the love he showed me, and for taking a chance on me.“This was a hard decision for me to make, but some things took place that me and my family didn’t like, so I will be reopening my recruitment.”“Thank you Clemson, and Clemson fans. Recruitment 100% back open.”"
Losing Joseph is a blow to the 2023 class, but Clemson football has time to recover
While you don’t want a player that doesn’t want you, Joseph is an elite player, on the verge of a top 100 recruit nationally, at a position the Tigers have a need at and now the Tigers will have to look elsewhere to fill that need.
The good news is the Tigers have been averaging about a commitment a day over the last week and are trending up overall in the 247Sports.com rankings, reaching number seven before Joseph officially decommitted.
While Joseph stated his recruitment is 100% open, it’s no secret that the Hurricanes offer attractive NIL deals that Clemson doesn’t and as a Miami native it would make sense that he would end up at the U.
As Dabo says, worry about the ones you got, not the ones you don’t.
Good luck to this young man moving forward and it’s on to “next” for the Tigers.