Clemson Recruiting Rolling With Punches in 2021
Clemson had a couple of high profile visitors on campus this weekend during the 52-17 win over Pitt.
Defensive end Korey Foreman, one of the top overall recruits in the 2021 recruiting class took an unofficial visit, as did Ty Simpson, one of the top quarterbacks in the 2022 cycle.
With an NCAA mandated dead period currently in place that restricts teams from officially hosting potential recruits, both SI All-American candidates had to make the trip on their own dime.
While there a number of things high school prospects can experience on unofficial visits, not being able to have any direct communication with coaches makes things much more difficult. Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott says kids are being forced into making one of the biggest decisions of their lives without having all of the information available to them.
"What you learn in 2020 is you just roll with the punches," Elliott said. "Take it one day at a time because you don't know what tomorrow's going to bring. I hate it for the players and the families because they got to make a huge decision, a life-changing decision potentially. There's a lot of things that go into this decision and they're not having an opportunity to evaluate the gameday atmosphere, able to see academics, able to tour the campus."
Simpson is a member of the 2022 class, meaning he still has ample time to make a decision. With a little luck, the dead period will be lifted in time for players in his class to gather all the information they need.
However, that isn't the case for Foreman. The defensive end from California committed to Clemson back in January, then decommitted in April, just after the dead period was originally put in place. The reasoning he cited was the need to take more visits, and at the time there was no way of knowing that the dead period would stay in place the rest of the year.
Foreman has been able to take some of those visits but they have all been unofficial visits. Some of the more notable ones he has been able to take included trips to LSU and Georgia, both of which were thought to be leading for his services at one time or another.
Making one more trip to Clemson can't be a bad thing for the Tigers. Foreman is set to announce on January 2, and Elliott says that the way things have played out this year is unfortunate for all parties involved.
"I know there's some guys that are coming down the wire that would really benefit from being able to have some type of interaction with the coaches," Elliott said. "But at the end of the day, the NCAA said no. We're about doing things the right way so you, unfortunately, can't have any conversation or any contact with those young men."