An Official Visit Just Means More at Clemson

The Clemson Tigers lost 5-star defensive lineman Korey Foreman because of rule that stops commits from taking visits once they commit, and were recently eliminated from 5-star quarterback Caleb Williams list. But what is it about Clemson's recruiting process that has them at the top of the nation year after year.

CLEMSON—The Clemson Tigers lost 5-star defensive lineman Korey Foreman because of rule that stops commits from taking visits once they commit, and were recently eliminated from 5-star quarterback Caleb Williams list. Even after these losses, the Tigers have been had a recent string of success on the recruiting trail.

But even with the program having a national appeal, for the Tigers’ coaching staff there is still something special about when the Tigers bring a recruit on campus.

"I think the other thing too for us is coach Swinney and our staff don't like entertaining guys that just want to be entertained,”passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach Brandon Streeter . “The way that our brand has grown, there are a lot of guys that want to visit Clemson to see what it's like and enjoy the experience and maybe they know they're going to stick to the school closer to home. We don't want to waste their time, we don't want to waste our time, waste our players' time. When you put on an official visit, there's over 100 people on campus involved with it."

Because of the the in-depth nature of hosting an athlete for an official visit the Tigers choose to do things different than most schools. The Tigers do not bring any athletes in for official visits until the player and his family has first visited on an unofficial visit—meaning the family pays their own way.

"It's one thing for a guy from California to want to take an official visit to Clemson,” Streeter said. “It’s another thing for him and his family to pay their own way, get on a plane, fly over, spend two days on campus on their own dime. Actions speak louder than words. That lets us know they're very interested in us.

"Our model works for us. Where we are located, we are able to get a majority of the guys we are going to recruit here unofficially. So to bring him in on an official visit doesn't really move the needle for us at all. They only thing that's different is you're paying their way instead of them paying their own way.”

"Bottom line, we feel like we have a formula that has worked very well for us. We didn't feel like we needed to change that this year, and I think after going through it, it just further confirms that we are good doing what we are doing right now.”

As strange as it may sound, this kind of formula has not stopped the Tigers from getting the cream of the crop from all over the country to want to come and experience what the Tigers have built.

Ultimately, the Tigers will continue to ride this unique formula into the foreseeable future because of the power that their brand has built.

"Fortunately for us, our brand is really strong right now. We have been able to get guys on campus -- if we need to -- from all over the country unofficially,” Streeter said. “If we opened up official visits to everybody in the spring, everybody whether they're interested or not would want to visit. When guys spend their own money to get to campus, that immediately shows us this kid is immediately interested whether from the West Coast, Florida, or the North."