Clemson continues to reload and restock talent through its recruiting efforts, one of the reasons why the Tigers have appeared in four straight College Football Playoffs, played in three of the last four national championship games and won two of the last three national titles.
The Tigers have consistently put together top-notch recruiting classes under Dabo Swinney, and it has been no different in this recruiting cycle, as Clemson’s 2019 signing class is ranked among the top 10 in the country by all the major recruiting services.
Clemson signed 27 prospects in December during the early signing period. It is Swinney’s largest class as Clemson’s head coach dating to 2011, when the Tigers signed 29 players, including stars such as Sammy Watkins, Stephone Anthony, B.J. Goodson, Kevin Dodd, Grady Jarrett, Charone Peake and Adam Humphries among others.
Clemson recruiting coordinator Brandon Streeter couldn’t be happier with the haul of players the Tigers have on board in the 2019 class.
“I’m always very excited about our signing classes, this year especially, it being such a big class,” Streeter told The Clemson Insider recently. “We were at 14 to 17 guys the last couple years, and now we’re way up in the upper 20s. So, that makes it exciting for us because we have so many guys now that we’re signing.”
Thirteen of Clemson’s 27 signees are rated as a four- or five-star prospect — and ranked among the top 300 prospects nationally — according to the 247Sports Composite.
Four of those are top-100 national prospects in cornerback Andrew Booth (No. 22 overall), wide receiver Frank Ladson (No. 31), wide receiver Joe Ngata (No. 52) and offensive lineman Will Putnam (No. 83). Booth and Ladson are both rated as five-star recruits.
When he assesses the class, Streeter believes the Tigers addressed the positional needs they had entering the cycle.
“We definitely felt like we accomplished what we needed to,” he said. “We filled those needs that we had.”
Not only is Clemson’s 2019 class deep and talented, but it is also geographically diverse. The Tigers signed players from fourteen different states, including players from California, Michigan, Connecticut and Pennsylvania for the first time during Swinney’s tenure. The 14 states represented in the class is the most since Danny Ford’s last class in 1989 that also had 14.
Clemson’s ability to recruit on a national level and bring in top talent from across the country is a reflection of the strength of its brand.
“It’s so neat for our program to go recruit now because of our brand being so big,” Streeter said. “We can go in there and not just try to go get the best player, but get the right fit, and so that’s what we were able to do and I feel really confident about that with this group.”
Making the 2019 class even sweeter for the Tigers is the fact that 17 of the 27 members of the class have already arrived on campus as early enrollees, which is beneficial to them as well as Clemson.
“It’s really good,” Streeter said. “I think any time a kid has an opportunity to get here a little bit early, it gives them a head start academically with a semester that is not just all football right away like the fall is. It’s an opportunity for them to get their feet wet, get acclimated to their classes and get the ball rolling there. And then obviously football wise, you get an extra semester and you have an opportunity to grow and mature, especially in the weight room.”
As it stands now heading into National Signing Day on Feb. 6, Clemson’s 2019 class is ranked No. 6 nationally by 247, seventh by Rivals and eighth by ESPN.