Among the handful of offensive linemen that Clemson has offered in the 2022 class is Addison Nichols, a top-100 national prospect from Greater Atlanta Christian School in Norcross, Ga.

The Clemson Insider recently caught up with the four-star offensive tackle to get the latest on his recruitment, where the Tigers stand right now and more.

Nichols’ recruiting process is sort of in a holding pattern currently, with the 6-foot-5, 310-pound junior waiting for in-person recruiting to open back up so he can get on various college campuses and check out some of the schools he is interested in, and then start to further narrow down his recruitment from there.

“I’m still really just waiting for this dead period to end so I can take some visits,” said Nichols, who holds more than two dozen scholarship offers. “That will really help me narrow it down. I just want to go and see the places.”

All unofficial and official visits have been suspended since last March during the ongoing NCAA dead period, which remains in place through at least April 15 due to COVID-19 concerns.

But when recruits are allowed to eventually hit the road again, there are a certain group of schools Nichols is looking to hopefully be able to visit.

“I’d really like to get to some of those faraway ones that I haven’t been able to get to, like Ohio State, USC, maybe Michigan – just kind of those more broad ones from when it opens up to more towards the summer since I’ll have more time to be able to do that,” Nichols said. “If I can’t, I’ll still try to go to some of the ones that are more local like I have in the past – like, re-visit Clemson for sure, go back to Georgia, go back to Duke, some of the other ones. I’d like to visit like Florida and stuff like that. So, kind of just travel all around.”

Nichols, who lists around 30 total offers, feels a lot of programs are pursuing him heavily at this point in the process and says it’s difficult to differentiate which ones are coming after him the hardest.

“They’re all fairly equal, to be honest,” he said. “I’d say probably the biggest ones would be like Tennessee, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Alabama, USC. They’re all really on the same page. There isn’t one that’s recruiting 10 times more than the other. They’re all recruiting really hard and I’m seeing the effort from all of them.”

Clemson is one of the schools that continues to stay in touch with Nichols, who received an offer from the Tigers last June.

“I’ll get the graphics and the typical recruiting messages,” he said. “But I speak with them every now and then.”

Nichols has a timeline in mind for when he would like to render his commitment, though it is fluid and depends on when on-campus recruiting reopens.

“If the dead period does get lifted like they’re saying it will in April, I’d say probably by the end of summer or the beginning of next football season,” he said of his potential decision timing. “But if it gets pushed back more, I could not tell you.”

Last July, Nichols released a list of his top 12 schools that included Clemson along with Alabama, Auburn, Duke, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, LSU, Ohio State, Southern Cal and Tennessee.

So, where does Dabo Swinney’s program stand with Nichols at this stage of his recruitment?

“Definitely really high,” he said. “I really like Clemson. I’ve been going to their camps since seventh grade. I like their program. I like Coach Swinney. He has a great program. He really coaches like my head coach, and their program is just really good. You can’t complain with a multiple-national-championship team with such a fantastic coach and good group of guys. So, they definitely are high on my list.”

Nichols is the No. 9 offensive tackle in the 2022 class according to the 247Sports Composite rankings, which slot him as the No. 10 prospect from the Peach State and No. 89 overall prospect in the class regardless of position.