COLLEGE FOOTBALL RECRUITING REVIEW

You know what they say about college football in the south, there are three seasons, the football season itself, college football recruiting and spring football. Since we had National Signing Day for college football back on February 3rd, I would like to see what it looks like for Clemson and South Carolina and area players.

CLEMSON FOOTBALL RECRUITING

It looks like Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers have put together a very good class this year as they were able to sign 23 players. The Tigers finished strong on signing day, as they were in a wait and see mode for Beaufort, South Carolina Linebacker Justin Parker and Lincoln, Alabama Running Back D.J. Howard. The Tigers beat out the South Carolina Gamecocks for Justin Parker and Auburn for D.J. Howard. The Tigers were able to sign eight players from the State of South Carolina, seven players from the state of Georgia, three players from the state of Alabama, and one player each from the states of Florida, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina and Deleware. The recruiting services across the country have rated the Clemson class as high as NO. 16 and as low as NO. 23. The Tigers filled a lot of their needs especially at WR, DB, OL and LB. I personally would have liked to have seen them sign a QB or two, since back-up Willy Korn is transferring and starter Kyle Parker could possibly be drafted in the Major League Baseball draft and could possibly not play football in the fall. All in all on paper the Tigers had a very good signing class, but we will really have to wait three or four years from now to see just how good the class really was. It will be very interesting to see if these players can help bring Clemson an ACC Championship. Stay tuned.

SOUTH CAROLINA FOOTBALL RECRUITING

Steve Spurrier and the South Carolina Gamecocks had a solid recruiting class as they were able to sign 24 players. The big signee for the Gamecocks was all-everything Running Back from Byrnes Marcus Lattimore. He was rated as the NO. 2 rated RB in the nation and he was Mr. Football in the state of South Carolina after this past season at Byrnes. He helped lead Byrnes to two 4A State Championships and a State Runner-up finish this past season. The Gamecocks and Auburn were Lattimore's final two schools. The Gamecocks were able to sign six players from the state of South Carolina, seven players from the state of Florida, six players from the state of Georgia, three players from the state of North Carolina and two players from the Junior College ranks. The recruiting services have ranked the South Carolina class from NO. 23 to NO. 34. On paper a solid class, but we really won't know how solid for three or four years. The question is, can this class help the Gamecocks win a Division Title or SEC Championship? Stay tuned.

UPSTATE AREA PLAYERS

The upstate area 0f South Carolina had 39 players sign national letters of intent. The group was led by Byrnes who had twelve players sign, Dorman had eight, Gaffney had three, Boiling Springs had five, Spartanburg had six, Union County had two and Chesnee, Chapman and Woodruff had one each.

TOP 5 CLASSES IN THE COUNTRY

The rich just keep getting richer as the Top 5 classes in the country are NO.1 is Florida, NO.2 is Texas, NO. 3 is Southern California, NO. 4 is Alabama and NO. 5 is Auburn. The surprise of the Top 5 for me is Auburn. Gene Chizik had a very good class this year for the Auburn Tigers.

DID YOU KNOW? The Boiling Springs Bulldogs had five players sign with Division 1 schools. This is the most in school history.

Until Next Week.