Top overall Clemson football commit shares "bad news" with Dabo Swinney

Something special is happening in Clemson football's 2026 recruiting class right now and Dabo Swinney is the mastermind behind it all.

The legendary head coach has landed seven commitments over the past week and each of them has boosted the 2026 class in the overall rankings. The Tigers went from mid-30s in the national team recuriting rankings with five commits up to as high as No. 2 on Tuesday with 12 pledges. They're now back down to No. 3, but something is brewing here.

And they're all buying in, it seems -- just ask Adam Guthrie.

Over the weekend, though, four-star offensive line target Chancellor Barclay shared some "bad news" with Dabo. He told the head coach he had bad news that he would have to put up with him for the next 3-4 years.

Dabo's reaction was priceless.

Dabo's reaction had Barclay laughing: "What?! What?! Are you serious?"

It was a pretty cool moment for the new commit as he became the highest-ranked pledge in Clemson's 2026 class. The Orlando, Fla., native definitely caught Swinney by surprise not just because he led with "I have some bad news" but also because he could have gone wherever he wanted. Barclay held 30 offers from the likes of Oklahoma, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, Miami, Ole Miss, Penn State, and Texas A&M.

But once again, Swinney dipped into SEC country and stole one of the top prospects. This is the third time in the past week that the head ball coach went into Florida and landed a prized recruit.

Grant Wise and Naeem Burroughs also chose Clemson over the home-state programs in Florida.

Dabo is on a roll, folks.