With the 2020 recruiting cycle in the books, Clemson and other schools across the country can now turn more of their attention to prospects in the class of 2021.
In our Looking Ahead series, The Clemson Insider takes a position-by-position look at the Tigers’ top targets in the 2021 class. In this article, we focus on safeties:
Clemson does not currently have a safety commit for 2021 but figures to add a couple or so before the cycle is over, depending on how things shake out.
One of the Tigers’ top targets is Monroeville (Pa.) Gateway four-star Derrick Davis, the nation’s No. 2 safety according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.
Davis visited Clemson last June after receiving an offer from the Tigers in May.
“I fell in love with Clemson during the summer,” he said recently. “It was just the campus really and the coaches, the vibe they have is like family ties really.”
Davis is not close to making a decision and has said he likely won’t take his official visits until later in the cycle. Penn State and Ohio State are a couple of the other top contenders along with Clemson, while schools such as Notre Dame, Michigan, LSU, Florida and Alabama have been involved as well.
The Tigers offered a couple of safeties during the contact period in January, College Park (Ga.) Woodward Academy’s Khari Gee and Winter Park (Fla.)’s Dakota Mitchell.
Gee (pictured above) received his offer on Jan. 23 and visited campus just two days later for Clemson’s elite junior day. He most recently visited Georgia on Feb. 1 and has also taken trips to Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio State, Southern Cal, Stanford and UCLA.
Clemson safeties coach Mickey Conn is making Gee feel like a priority, and Gee told TCI following the junior day visit that the Tigers were “definitely up there” among his favorites.
Mitchell added his offer from Clemson two weeks ago and subsequently told us that the Tigers were the new No. 1 team in his recruitment, saying they’re at the top of his list.
According to Mitchell, Texas A&M has been recruiting him the hardest, and the Aggies are one of his top schools at this point in the process along with Clemson, LSU and FSU. He dropped a top 10 on Sunday and included each of those schools as well as Alabama, Oklahoma, Miami, South Carolina, Auburn and Florida.
Mitchell has set a commitment date of May 21. He most recently visited FSU on Feb. 1 and has scheduled upcoming trips to Clemson (March 7), Auburn (March 21), Alabama (March 28) and Texas A&M (April 17).
Clemson has also been recruiting Hopewell (Va.) four-star TreVeyon Henderson as a safety that could play nickel and corner as well. He visited Clemson last July and then returned in September for the Texas A&M game.
A lot of other schools have offered Henderson as a running back, and that may be his positional preference at the next level.
A few of the other safeties in the 2021 class we’re keeping an eye on are Opa Locka (Fla.) Western five-star James Williams, Miami (Fla.) Northwestern four-star Kamren Kinchens and Homerville (Ga.) Clinch County four-star Tyler Morehead.
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