Swinney's summer camps end on a high note

Jonathan Paylor was one of the Sunday standouts.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sun Jun 12 11:59:49 GMT-05:00 2022

CLEMSON – And just like that, the summer camps have come to a close.

Close to a thousand campers walked through the doors of the indoor practice facility the last three days, and there was still talent on hand for Sunday’s final session.

We walked inside and stopped first at the wide receiver station with coach Tyler Grisham. Grisham has had a number of good looking athletes in town for the session, but one of the best was saved for last in Burlington (NC) Cummings 2024 4-star Jonathan Paylor.

I was watching the wide receivers work out with one of the parents, and he asked how you can pick out one prospect over another when all of them “look good.” I pointed to Paylor as an example – they weren’t working with real quarterbacks, so either Grisham or other wide receivers were making the throws. Some of them were on target and many of them weren’t.

Paylor, who was in and out of his cuts clean, stands 5-9 and moves like you would expect a slot receiver to move. He made several acrobatic catches, sometimes out of necessity, and made it all look easy. His offer list isn’t impressive, yet, but it will be. He has early offers from Appalachian St., Georgia, Coastal Carolina, Kentucky, and Louisville. That list will continue to grow.

*We slipped past the running backs (where Will Shipley and Phil Mafah had their own group), and over to the linebackers. Wesley Goodwin is a little different than Brent Venables in that he roams all of the different linebacker groups, letting the coaches coach each drill and then he steps and adds and corrects where needed. Venables did that at times, but Goodwin is very much a roamer and wants eyes on all of the prospects as they go through the different drills.

Today he – and we – watched Tampa (FL) Jesuit 2024 3-star linebacker Drew Woodaz, the younger brother of Clemson linebacker Wade Woodaz. Woodaz camped at Oklahoma earlier this week – with that Venables guy – and received an offer.

Goodwin watched Woodaz go through all of the drills, like we stated, and it’s evident that the younger Woodaz is athletic like this older brother. Louisville, South Florida, and Pitt stand as his biggest offers to date. From watching him, I like the way it sounds when he hits the pads. It just seems to thump a little louder with the good ones, and you could hear him hitting from a good distance away. Will be interesting to see if Goodwin offers.

*I always have to go and watch cornerbacks coach Mike Reed. I learn something new every time I go over to watch. Today, Reed was paying special attention to Nashville (TN) Lipscomb Academy 2024 4-star cornerback Kaleb Beasley. Beasley is another one that stood out – he listed at 6-0, 179, but he looks and plays taller. He reported a Clemson offer shortly after the session.

After one water break, however, one prospect folded his shirt to expose his midriff, and Reed to told him to pull his shirt back down. “Uh uh. Don’t do that. I don’t have an 8-pack and I can’t take my shirt off. So you leave your shirt on. Can’t embarrass the coach.”

*A bus pulled up outside and 29 different players exited, all part of a group from Top Recruits Now out of the Orlando area. The group has visited 10 different camps in eight days, and today was the last stop before heading back to Orlando. The mission of the group is to expose high school players to the different opportunities available (not every kid can afford to attend all of the combines), and help them obtain college scholarships by exposure (bus tours), evaluation (film evaluation), and Youth Leagues (7on7). They also hold awareness seminars for student and parents, and SAT/ACT preparation.