First Summer Official Visit Weekend Was 'Awesome' for Dabo Swinney and Clemson
For the first time in the Dabo Swinney era, Clemson hosted summer official visits this offseason.
The Tigers brought in 31 players on officials during the first weekend in June, a time the staff generally reserves for unofficial visits. It's a decision that has paid off big, as Clemson has picked up commitments from 14 different players since, catapulting the 2023 class into Top-5 status.
"That weekend was awesome for us," Dabo Swinney said at Clemson Media Day.
On the surface, it would seem like a massive change in approach, but according to Swinney that isn't actually the case at all. The head coach pointed to last year's big recruiting event the program held early in the summer, called the Elite Retreat.
During that event, a lot of the recruits on hand were making their first visit to campus and this time, all but one had already visited at least one time previously. And while this was the first time Clemson was hosting summer officials, the overall approach never changed.
"Really, the only change was instead of it being the Elite Retreat, and the difference is if you go back to COVID, nobody could get out to campus, that was a big difference," Swinney said. "We went a long while where nobody could come in."
"All of this class have had multiple opportunities to come. So that was a little change. And again, you can do (official) visits all of April and all of May and all of June but we've just chosen not to do that. We've really taken the same approach and really hadn't changed anything. We've taken the same approach and continue to promote the things that make Clemson, Clemson."
Another reason Swinney chose to host players on summer officials was the transfer portal. The new rules have resulted in more players wanting to enroll early, which in turn speeds up the entire process.
However, through it all, and in typical Swinney fashion, the Tigers are still on pace to have most, if not all, of the 2023 class locked up by the early signing period. And again, the staff has never wavered in how they approach the process, and the results speak for themselves.
"A lot of these kids have ramped everything up, which I don't like," Swinney said. "I'm always trying to slow the process down. But I think that's driving a lot of some of the early commits too. But for us, it's really kind of the same as last year was. We were pretty much done with our class last year, we had some decommits at the very end of the deal, but you go back to pre-COVID, we're right on pace with where we've always been."
"But our approach has been the same. We got a great recruiting class that's coming together."
The Tigers, who went 10-3 in 2021 and finished 14th in the final Associated Press Poll, are the fourth team on FanDuel Sportsbook's list to win it all in 2022.
