Clemson Football

Thursday 02/08/2018

Clemson’s Signee Class Receives High Rankings

Clemson’s Signee Class Receives High Rankings

Clemson’s 17-member scholarship class included players from eight states. Six of the players were ranked as the best in their respective state by either ESPN.com or Rivals.com. Clemson signed the number-one player according to at least one service from North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Alabama and Georgia.
Twelve of the 17 scholarship players in the class are ranked in the ESPN Top 300, including 10 in the top 150. It is tied for the most top 150 players according to ESPN in Clemson history and the most since 2008 when Clemson had 10 top 150 ESPN ranked players in Tommy Bowden’s final recruiting class.
Clemson finished fifth in the final ESPN rankings, the highest finish under Dabo Swinney according to ESPN and the highest since a number-two ranking in 2008. Clemson finished fourth in the Rivals.com recruiting rankings in 2015 and fifth in 2016.
Clemson has now finished in the top 13 of the ESPN recruiting rankings eight consecutive years, all under Dabo Swinney, and in the top 20 all 13 years ESPN has had recruiting rankings.
Clemson is the first school since 2007 and just the second in the 13 years ESPN has had rankings, to sign three of the top six ESPN prospects. Southern Cal signed the top three in 2007. Trevor Lawrence ranked No. 2, Xavier Thomas #4 and K.J. Henry #6 this year.
Mario Goodrich is the first Clemson signee in history from the state Missouri.
Over the last two years Clemson has signed just 31 players, but 21 of them have been top 300 players by ESPN.com.
Over the last four years, 45 of the 79 signees (.570) have been ESPN top 300 prospects and 31 of the 45 have been ranked in the top 150.
In terms of top 150 signees from ESPN, Clemson had 10 this year to rank in a tie for fourth in the nation with Alabama. Clemson now has had 54 top 150 signees since 2010, or Dabo Swinney’s first full recruiting class.
Clemson had four USA Today first or second team All-Americans in this class. Xavier Thomas, Trevor Lawrence and Jackson Carman were first-team selections, while K.J. Henry was a second-team choice. Lawrence was named the USA Today Offensive Player of the Year. This ties for the most USA Today All-Americans in one class in Clemson history. Clemson also had four who made first or second team in 2011 and 2016.
Eight new Tigers played in the recent US Army All-American game and three played in the Under Armour game in Orlando, Fla. The players in the US Army game were Josh Belk, Jackson Carman, Derion Kendrick, Trevor Lawrence, Justin Mascoll, Kyler McMichael, B.T. Potter and Xavier Thomas. The players in the Under Armour were Mike Jones, Jr., Justyn Ross and K.J. Henry.
As far as players by state based on where they played football last year: South Carolina (6), Georgia (5), Ohio (1), Alabama (1), Missouri (1), North Carolina (1), Tennessee (1), Florida (1). It is the most signees from the state of South Carolina since 2015 when Clemson had 11.
This is the third straight year Clemson has had at least eight states represented in the signee class. In 2016 and 2017, 10 states were represented. The record for the most states represented by one signee class is 14, back in 1989.
This decade Clemson has signed 72 players from South Carolina, 38 from Georgia, 26 from North Carolina and 20 from Florida.
In his career as Clemson head coach dating to the 2009 recruiting class, Dabo Swinney has signed 207 players from 21 different states.
- Final top 150 rankings for Clemson signees:
Trevor Lawrence (1-Rivals, 1-247 Sports, 1 Prepstars, 2-ESPN); Xavier Thomas (4-247 Sports, 4-ESPN, 5-Rivals, 5-Prepstars); K.J. Henry (6-ESPN, 26-247 Sports, 26-Rivals, 27-Prepstars); Justyn Ross (15-Rivals, 101-247 Sports, 57-Prepstars, 74-ESPN; Jackson Carman (6-Prepstars, 49-Rivals, 17-247 Sports, 21-ESPN); Derion Kendrick (30-247 Sports, 30-Rivals.com, 62-ESPN, 80-Prepstars); Kyler McMichael (53-Rivals, 84-247 Sports, 74-Prepstars, 90-ESPN); Justin Mascoll (92-Prepstars, 102-ESPN, 109-247 Sports); Josh Belk(96-ESPN, 25-247 Sports); Mario Goodrich (99-Rivals,, 133-Prepstars, 148-ESPN).

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