Re: For the folks so down on our '25 recruiting class,

CU Medallion [20037]

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Feb 14, 2025, 11:40 AM

I understand where you're coming from and get the decommit angst. I used the term 'so down on' in the OP for a reason as we see a lot of harsh references here, and this is directed at those throwing terms like that around to describe our 2025 class, i.e. our players. You've seen some here. If someone is going to trash the whole shebang and doom and gloom about it - understand that you are talking about 15 incoming freshmen plus 3 transfers, almost all of whom are on campus today as Clemson students and working hard to contribute to our fortunes ahead. I don't expect anyone to actually name them - that's kind of the point and the call out.

I'm not advocating for some kind of blind allegiance to the staff either, though I am clearly very confident in their ability to assemble and produce championship-caliber teams and continuing to strive to be the best. We had very little room in this class as we had so few departures, which has a major impact on recruiting rankings from services as it's a comparison metric. Too many seem blinded by the numbers and what it signifies without grasping that we simply can't manufacture numbers greater than 85 overall out of thin air. Instead of throwing shade at our newbies, some perspective instead.

Sure, we had some attractive targets decommit late. Stinks for them. Offers that went out following though aren't just some random hopes - we wanted these kids also or they wouldn't be here. Dabo honors his side of the commitment - he doesn't offer beyond what a position has available. It should be telling for the trashers that we opted for transfers for several of those available spots instead of just filling the space with more freshmen just for numbers.

Objectively our coaches want 70-ish players every cycle as that's around the number of offers that go out. From that they get a fraction of those. The higher volume of decommits this cycle was frustrating, but more from a standpoint of having less time and opportunity to refocus recruiting efforts than on who we were actually bringing in. For several of those unexpected holes, we opted for available talent in the portal instead that are closer to being field-ready, if not outright starting capability. And it seems like Dabo is doing some retooling to help prevent that type of volume from occurring again.

Hope this helps. Yeah, I'm a proud pumper, as from my perspective there's a lot to be pumped about.

Go Tigers!

Message was edited by: wildblulou®

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the rankings don't mean squat to me when some teams have to sign 30-60 guys just to get to 85 and the rankings are based on accumulation vs stars. I wish we had signed a superstar QB but believe everyone knew Cade would be back so in this day and age it's harder to do that. That said, I think the kid coming in has a chance to be really good.

For me, I think this class is great because I look at it from the standpoint of - did we improve our roster over the previous year. Are the guys we are bringing in better than the guys we are losing? only time will tell but I really think Adams is better than anyone we lost on the DL. Jacobs is better than anyone we lost on the OL. I think Davidson will be better than Mafah in the longrun. Henderson, Ware and Watford seem to be as good as guys we lost. Did we sign anyone a TE or LB as good as Brininstool or Carter? maybe not but Heidt at DE fills a gap that existed all last year on the roster, and Alexander gives us someone that improves depth at LB if nothing else. I think everyone knows our TE of the future is CB, who redshirted. The FR LB is coming of an ACL so he'll have to work himself up. Safety might be the other position where we could have locked in someone as good or better. Again we only had like 9 scholarship guys exhaust eligibility. None were superstars. We had a few other backup types hit the portal. I think our overall roster talent has improved over last year. Also note, while we may lose some of our superstars after next year, our # of scholarship losses won't be huge next year either. The 2027 class is shaping up as the next opportunity for a large in #s class.

For the folks so down on our '25 recruiting class,