It's been a heck of a week for Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney and this fanbase which has been just basking in the sunlight that has been this program's torrid recruiting stretch.
Stop me if you've heard this already, but Clemson is the hottest team in the country on the recruiting trail right now, landing seven commitments in the past week. The Tigers' class has gone from OK to No. 3 in the country and Swinney doesn't seem to be slowing down any time soon.
And if you know anything about Clemson and Swinney, you'd know that the Tigers are big on culture and building up men and not worrying about them as players.
Respected college football personality Josh Pate spoke about his on an episode of his show recently and posted the clip on X. He read a tweet that gushed over the "loyalty" at Clemson and the fact that culture there just means more. Pate explained why that's actually true even though the haters will take the quote and run with it.
Pate explained what sets Clemson apart:
As THE accepted authority on Clemson it’s time to discuss what (if anything) separates them pic.twitter.com/3UciYIa2Qe
— Josh Pate (@JoshPateCFB) March 12, 2025
Basically, Pate just reiterated the talking points from the X account, stating that, yes, Dabo is big on building personal relationships and that's why a lot of players buy in, and now that there's revenue sharing incorporated, it will be much more difficult to keep Clemson from landing top recruiting classes again.
I tend to agree. Clemson has a really good culture and players have always wanted to go there but big bags of cash were always floated around to steer them elsewhere. Now that Clemson can float those bags of cash on an even playing field, it's different.
Clemson is already showing it can compete at an elite level in recruiting in this cycle and it might just be bad news for the rest of college football.