During the offseason, while Clemson was receiving praise for the product gearing up to take the field, the program was also getting attention for its recruiting efforts. The 2026 recruiting class for the Tigers was shaping up to be one of the best in Dabo Swinney’s time as the head coach. Of course in today’s college football landscape, those early commitments don’t mean as much.
As the 2025 season began, Clemson had the top recruiting class in the ACC, and seventh best in the FBS. Much of that had to do with the 14 four-star commits the Tigers had at the time. Now, after the struggles Clemson has had on the field, a few of those top recruits have decided to take a different path.
The Tigers lost three, blue chip commits over the last month. This dropped their recruiting rankings to third in the ACC and 15th in the country according to ON3.
The first commitment lost was four-star edge player Dre Quinn out of Georgia. His decommitment was announced early in the month of October. A few weeks later, on October 27th, it was announced that safety Blake Stewart is backing out of his commitment. The latest decommitment was made October 30th, as four-star defensive lineman Keshawn Stancil flipped to Miami.
When asked about the recent decommits, Swinney did not have much to say, besides that he is moving forward. It’s tough to come up with satisfying words in this position though. You don’t want to talk down on the player nor anyone’s program, especially your own.
The Clemson staff is now tasked with working much harder to make sure the players still committed make it to signing day. There is still plenty of high level talent making their way into the program, especially on offense.
Five four-star offensive lineman remain committed to the Tigers, along with three wide receivers and a quarterback of the same rating. If the staff can get a few high-level recruits to flip to Clemson by signing day, it would take some of the sting off of these recent losses. They did get one last week with three-star linebacker Brayden Reilly. Getting more will be tough to do with the way this season has gone though.
These losses in recruiting though, is another example of just how bad things have become this season for Swinney’s program.