In late February, elite edge rusher Cyrus Moss from national high school powerhouse Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas narrowed down his list of around 30 scholarship offers when he announced his top 11 schools.

Clemson made the cut for Moss – one of the country’s top defensive end prospects in the 2022 class – along with Alabama, Arizona State, Florida, Georgia, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Oregon, Penn State and Southern Cal.

The Clemson Insider recently sat down for a one-on-one Zoom interview with Moss, who is in the process of further trimming down his recruitment and working to determine which schools he will take official visits to after the NCAA dead period, which is currently in place through the end of May, eventually ends.

“I’m at the top 11 right now, and I’m working on trying to get that down to a top five, which is going to go right along with my five official visits that I feel like taking,” he said. “So, right now I’m just trying to figure out which schools I want to start pursuing heavier and begin doing those official visits with them and stuff like that.”

Moss (6-5, 220), who received an offer from Clemson in January, cited the program’s consistency and coaching staff continuity as the main reasons why he regards the Tigers one of his top schools.

“You can come to that school and you can be sure that things are going to continue going how they have been, which has been very well,” he said. “They’ve been an extremely successful program. You can be sure you can commit there, you can be there and you’re not going to feel like, ‘Where is Coach going to be, is he going to be there?’ So, they have that consistency, and then that also shows up in their play on the field.

“Like I said, they’ve been consistently a very good program and they’ve been in the national competition every single year. So, that consistency for them is definitely one of the biggest reasons that I included them in that top list.”

Moss has been in regular contact with Clemson defensive ends coach Lemanski Hall, while he is also staying in touch with defensive coordinator Brent Venables and has spoken with members of the Tigers’ strength and conditioning and P.A.W. Journey staff as well.

“They’ve got tons of great people, and their message in all was that they care about everything about the person,” Moss said. “They care about who they are as a football player and who they are as a student and who they are as a person, and they’re always going to hold you accountable in all three areas of your life.”

Looking ahead, Moss has a good idea of when he expects to wrap up his recruitment and render a commitment.

“I’m thinking that early signing period in December,” he said. “I think I’m going to be pretty much ready by around then.”

When that time comes, Moss will consider several things that will factor heavily into his college decision.

“I’m definitely huge on the position coach and how I’m feeling about them from a few different aspects,” he said. “One would definitely be what type of things they’re teaching, how am I feeling about that. Do I feel like it’s good stuff scheme wise? What type of position that they’re going to have me in, what type of things are they going to ask of me, things like that, what they want me doing.

“And just getting to feel the position coach out as well as a person — this is someone I’m going to be interacting with on a daily basis. How do I feel just talking to this person, how do I feel just interacting and being around this person? Could I see myself being coached up by this person basically every day? So, that as well.”

As for where Clemson stands with Moss right now, the Tigers have put themselves in a good position at this point in his process and are a strong contender in his recruitment.

“They’re definitely, definitely a great program,” he said. “They’ve got a great shot, and I’ve really enjoyed being recruited by them. So, I think as things continue to keep developing and going with them and I continue to talk with them, I think they’re on a great track.”

According to the 247Sports Composite rankings, Moss is the No. 1 prospect in the state of Nevada, No. 4 weakside defensive end nationally and No. 51 overall prospect in the 2022 class.

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