LB Sammy Brown More 'Shocked Than Excited' After Picking Up Clemson's First 2024 Offer
Sammy Brown is officially the first player in the 2024 recruiting class to pick up an offer from Clemson.
The Tigers don't typically offer players before the month of June, ahead of the start of their junior seasons. However, Brown is one of those rare exceptions, and it was something that caught the blue-chip talent completely off-guard.
"I was completely shocked," Brown told All Clemson. "I might have been more shocked than I was excited. It really came out of nowhere."
Arguably the top linebacker in the 2024 class and a top-five talent overall, Brown was one of the numerous players on campus last Saturday for an unofficial visit. Like his other visits to Clemson, it was the coaching staff and how they treat high school recruits, that really stood out.
"Really just the hospitality that the coaches have," Brown said. "I mean, they're high energy. Super excited you're there, no one's really getting left out or anything. So they definitely have a great coaching staff that really knows what they're doing and they're all really great people."
Being Clemson's first offer of the 2024 class is quite an accomplishment in and of itself, but getting one so early makes it that much more impressive. However, Brown sees it as an opportunity to keep pushing forward, something he can use as motivation.
"It's definitely exciting, definitely a blessing," Brown said. "At the same time. It's the motivation to keep working, keep moving forward, not be satisfied with what's happened so far. And so it's really exciting. It's a super big blessing, but at the same time it's a motivation to keep getting better."
The 6-foot-2, 215-pound blue-chip prospect out of Jefferson, Georgia has long been on the Tigers' radar. He's been camping at Clemson for years and was very familiar with how Brent Venables did things.
Although, Venables is now at Oklahoma, with Wes Goodwin running the Clemson defense and coaching the linebackers. Brown said Goodwin is definitely a change of pace compared to Venables, but he also is extremely confident Clemson's defense is in very good hands moving forward.
"He's definitely different," Brown said. "But at the same time, he's really the same. They haven't really changed up the defense that much but one thing he has said that they've been doing is kind of slowing things down and kind of making sure that everyone's got a grasp of the defense before they kind of get out on the field."
"They'll go through the film a lot slower and all that stuff, but I really like him. He seems like a really cool guy and from what I've heard and seen, he's extremely smart when it comes to football. So I really liked him and he's going to fill that role really well."
The linebacker now has more than a dozen offers, with Clemson, Tennesee and Georgia being some of the teams currently recruiting Brown the hardest. Although, don't think growing up in Georgia gives the Bulldogs a distinct advantage. Brown didn't grow up rooting for the Dawgs, as he and his father always leaned towards watching old-school option football.
"I never really liked anyone, in particular, growing up," he said. "I just kind of watched whatever was on. My dad always watched triple-option teams because we ran triple-option at our old high school. So he really watched a lot of triple-option teams like Georgia Southern and Army and all that stuff, so I never really had a favorite growing up."
With the new rule changes in college football in recent seasons, some players choose to approach their recruitment with NIL being a priority, but that's not Brown. He's more concerned with just playing the sport he loves while in college.
"No, it's not really that big of a deal," Brown said. "Because I mean, in the long scheme of things, it doesn't really matter that much. I mean, money is money. Money is nice, but it's not gonna last forever. So it's not really that important. I'm really more focused on playing football."
Don't expect a decision from the linebacker anytime soon. Brown is still early on in the process and is going to take his time to ensure he has considered all the options.
"I really want to keep it almost 100% open until sometime during my senior year," Brown said. "Then I could start settling down and making top threes and all that stuff. I really just want to have as much time as I can to see everything and keep it 100% open so I can see everything and evaluate everything before I make a decision."
Although, when he does sit down and make that decision, expect the school that lands the elite-level talent to have a very strong, well-established culture. One that stretches from inside the program all the way out into the community.
"Definitely the culture that they bring at the school," Brown said of what he's looking for in a school. "Definitely the culture that the players bring, the coaches bring, and the community brings. Because culture is going to help you on and off the field. If you have a good coach, you're going to have good coaches that are going to help you on and off the field. It's definitely the culture that not only the coaches and the team has, but also the community has."
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