Clemson Football Recruiting: Hardy Watts, Cortez Mills, Samari Matthews

Clemson misses on two priority targets on Monday

Clemson Football entered Sunday with announcements coming from three 2025 targets.

It was not surprising that Zae Thomas selected Florida State as his destination, for reasons you can learn more about here.

Clemson had much higher hopes that Hardy Watts or Cortez Mills would be Tigers.

Watts announced first at noon Eastern and selected the Wisconsin Badgers.

Clemson still has three offensive line recruits in the 2025 class, so they are lightyears ahead of where they were at this time last season. However, they only have one commitment out of the five that took official visits that have announced destinations. The only one remaining is David Sanders.

I’ll have more on Clemson’s offensive line recruiting later today.

Mills announced his commitment to the Oklahoma Sooners later in the evening.

The Tigers have Carleton Preston and Marquise Henderson already committed. They also have one more announcement coming Monday from target Samari Reed.

So Clemson isn’t in a desperate spot with either position, but it is disappointing that neither Watts nor Mills selected Clemson. The Tigers had been recruiting them hard.

Other news from Clemson Football Recruiting:

Samari ‘Smoke’ Matthews has included Clemson in his Top 11 schools.

Matthews is the former teammate of Nolan Hauser at Hough High School in Cornelius, North Carolina. He is a 6’-0”, 180-pound cornerback prospect in the Class of 2026.

2025 commitment Tae Harris has announced that he will join Clemson Track & Field in the spring after his duties to Clemson Football are complete.

As a junior at Cedartown High School in Georgia, Harris ran the 100 meter with a 10.60 and the 200 meter with a 21.21.

While Harris is running track, it is unlikely that he will participate in spring practices with Football.