Brandon Streeter admits it. He right now has a pretty easy job as Clemson’s recruiting coordinator.
Granted, the job still has its headaches, but right now, there are not many big-time high school football players who do not want to come to Clemson.
The Tiger Paw has never been hotter than it is today. Fresh off a second national championship in three years, high school players are signing up to come to Clemson’s summer camps and are sending their highlight videos and whatever they can do to get the attention of the national champions.
“It is fun to go out there throughout the recruiting cycle and sell that to these guys,” Streeter said. “It is so easy to sell it because it is just facts.
“When people watch us, they see the passion. They see the talent, so when you go into schools it just makes it that much easier because of what we have been able to produce here and the type of kids that we have.”
Clemson is known as Wide Receiver U because of the number of former Tigers who are now starting in the NFL. However, as Streeter points out, Clemson is becoming a factory for the NFL at almost every position.
This past season former players such as Deshaun Watson (QB), Deandre Hopkins (WR), D.J. Reader (DT), Adam Humphries (WR), Vic Beasley (DE), Grady Jarrett (DT), Bashuad Breeland (CB), Jaron Brown (WR), Martavis Bryant (WR), B.J. Goodson (LB), Andre Branch (DE), Chandler Catanzaro (PK), Dorian O’Daniel (LB), Marcus Gilchrist (DB), Shaq Lawson (DE), Byron Maxwell (CB), Bradley Pinion (P), Coty Sensabaugh (CB), Sammy Watkins (WR) and Mike Williams (WR) started for their respected NFL teams.
“The stats that we can show them and the guys that we have in the NFL, it is incredible,” Streeter said. “So, it just makes it that much easier and there is proof out there that there is not a better program to do that for. So, it makes it very, very intriguing.”
In all, more than 30 former Tigers were on NFL rosters this year, with tight end Dwayne Allen concluding the year with a Super Bowl title while playing a prominent role for the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII.
“Honestly, you could pick the position and it could be QBU,” Streeter said. “It could be Running Back U or O-Line U, it really is turning into … we have had unbelievable wide receivers here and continue to have unbelievable wide receivers, but when you have those special players like we have had in the past at receiver, they know the facts of what they are going to get here as a student athlete and the degree they are going to get from Clemson University and then the opportunity they are going to have to play at the next level.”
During his time at Clemson, Streeter has worked with Watson, who won the Davey O’Brien and the Manning Award as the nation’s best quarterback twice and was a first-round pick in the NFL Draft. These days, he has the pleasure of working with Trevor Lawrence, who just guided Clemson to a national championship as a true freshman.
Besides winning championships and national awards, Streeter also sells the kind of receivers they will be throwing to compared to other schools.
“As the quarterbacks coach, to be able to go out there all over the country and sell that, that is such a big selling point for me with quarterbacks,” he said. “To say, ‘listen. You need to go and compare who you are throwing to whether it is us or whoever you are looking at. Because that is a big part of it.
“Deshaun Watson, Kelly Bryant and Trevor Lawrence and those guys I have worked with here, they have been great players. There is no doubt about it. They are special players, but the guys they are throwing to make them even that much better. Just being able to have that is a very big security blanket for quarterbacks and to recruit quarterbacks like that.”
Move over Alabama, Clemson is the new King of College Football. In our new magazine “Little Ole Clemson”: The Best “Little” Dynasty Ever, we examine not just the 2018 team’s run to being “the best ever” but examine the last four seasons and how Dabo Swinney turned Clemson into the new dynasty of college football. We also take a look at the role former athletic director Terry Don Phillips played. We go behind the scenes at the Tigers’ run to a second national championship in three seasons and the previous three national championship runs. It also features stories on the Power Rangers, the 2018 senior class, high quality photos and much, much more.
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