Clemson Football 2013 Signing Day Notes

Clemson’s 2013 signee class was ranked in the top 15 in the nation by Scout.com (12), ESPN.com (13), 247sports.com (13) and Rivals.com (14). It was ranked 20^th by Sporting News.
Each of Dabo Swinney‘s five recruiting classes have been ranked in the top 20 by ESPN.com, including three consecutive top 13 rankings between 2011-13. His 2009 class was 19^th, 2010 was 19^th, eighth in 2011, 10^th in 2012 and 13^th this year.
Ten schools have been ranked in the top 20 of the ESPN.com recruiting rankings five years in a row. The list includes Clemson, LSU, Alabama, Texas, Southern California, Florida, Georgia, Florida State, Ohio State and Oklahoma. Dabo Swinney joins Les Miles (LSU), Nick Saban (Alabama), Mack Brown (Texas), Mark Richt (Georgia) and Bob Stoops (Oklahoma) as the only coaches in the nation to have five consecutive top 20 recruiting rankings according to ESPN.com.
Clemson is one of seven schools to have a top 13 signee class each of the last three years. The others are Florida State (1,2,9), Alabama (2,1,1), Georgia (6,5,10), Ohio State (7,6,3), Notre Dame (9,9,4) and Florida (12,4,2).
Clemson signed 10 different players who were ranked among the top 150 players in the nation by at least one service. Mackensie Alexander was ranked in the top 100 by every service, including a number-four ranking by ESPN.com. Other top 150 players with their highest ranking include Ben Boulware (#78 by ESPN.com), Tyshon Dye (#86 by Prepstar), Wayne Gallman (#118 by Sporting News), Jayron Kearse (#100 by Scout.com), Dorian O’Daniel (#46 by Prepstar), Ebenezer Ogundeko (#126 by ESPN.com), Scott Pagano (#104 by Rivals.com), Adrian Baker (#129 by Prepstar) and Tyrone Crowder (#89 by Scout.com).
ESPN.com has selected a top 150 since 2006. Clemson has signed 43 top 150 players over this eight year period. That includes six players this year in the top 150. Mackensie Alexander was ranked fourth, the second highest ranking for a Clemson signee by ESPN.com. The only player ranked higher was Da’Quan Bowers, who was ranked as the top player in the nation in the 2008 signee class.
Clemson has signed 43 top 150 players according to ESPN.com. Twenty-two are defensive players and 21 are offensive players.
Clemson’s six top 150 ESPN.com players are tied for the third most by the Tigers in the eight year history of ESPN.com’s rankings. The 2008 recruiting class had 10, while the 2011 class had seven. The 2012 class also had six. Five of the ESPN.com 150 signed from 2008 are already on NFL rosters (Bowers, Jamie Harper, Brandon Thompson, Antoine McClain and Dwayne Allen). Xavier Brewer and Andre Ellington will have a chance to join them in 2013.
Clemson had six top 150 players by ESPN.com this year and four of the six are defensive players, including each of the three highest rated players – Mackensie Alexander (4), Ben Boulware (78) and Dorian O’Daniel (112).