Clemson Football: On to the Class of 2024

The phrase “recruiting never ends” is more true now than it’s ever been with the transfer portal and NIL factored into the recruiting and re-recruiting required of the Clemson football staff.

The ink is barely dry on Clemson’s 2023 haul and the coaches have already turned their attention to the next class.

That’s the way it works in college football these days.

The truth is they’ve already been working on 2024 and have a couple of commitments for the next cycle.

That’s a starting point, and not a bad one, with an All-State kicker and a four-star, top-200 safety already in the fold.

Now that all the NLIs for 2023 are signed, and with little to no drama remaining for NSD in February, the staff can turn their attention to building the next class and fill positions of need.

To that end, back in early December the staff offered a couple of high-end cornerbacks from two states that have proven fruitful to Clemson – Georgia and Florida.

Charles Lester III is a 6’1, 171-pound corner from Riverview High in Sarasota, rated as a 5-star and ranked No. 22 overall in the Class of 2024.

As befits his ranking, Lester has offers from practically all the big schools, including Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State and Notre Dame among others.  Clemson added their name to the list on December 5th.

Jalyn Crawford has almost the exact same build.  He’s a 6’0, 170-pound corner from Parkview High in Lilburn, Georgia.

Crawford’s ranked No. 134 in the 247sports.com composite ranking, but is rated much higher (No. 34 overall) by 247sports.com themselves.

He’s considered a four-star.

Crawford’s list of offers is not as extensive or expansive as Lester’s, at least not yet, but there are still big time names on the list, LSU, Michigan, Florida State and Texas A&M among them.

Clemson added their name to that list on December 5th.

Back in June, Steve Wiltfong crystal balled Crawford to LSU, so there’s that.

Early signing day showed us the recruiting circus is still alive in college football, but Clemson football doesn’t play that game

That said, if Wednesday proved anything, it’s that there are still a circus atmosphere around recruiting, with one recruit being committed to three different teams on three consecutive days.

Wednesday also showed Clemson doesn’t generally play that game though and generally knows who’s coming long before pen is put to paper.  Sometimes that’s public and sometimes not as much, but Clemson isn’t offering just to offer.  They must feel they have at least a punchers chance.

We are a long way from early signing day for the Class of 2024, but the Tiger coaches are laying the seeds and these are two big-time prospects who have offers in hand.