Objective Assessment of Clemson's Class

Looking over their commits and talking it over w/ some other recruitniks who are more dispassionate than I am (UGA, Bama, OSU and ND fans) and here were some of our thoughts.

1. Excellent DB class. Alexander will play immediately. Tankersley should make an early contribution as well. They have a gem in Adrian Baker, though. He has a fantastic offer sheet and a ton of potential. Korrin Wiggins and Jadar Johnson look to be very capable as well. This is the backbone of their class.

2. LB class is stellar, too. We know Boulware can play, but Dorian O'Daniel drew interest from a lot of big time programs as well. It looks like the Grayson RB will move to LB, too. Fortunately for us, they've squandered all the talent they've collected at LB the past few years. Let's hope the trend continues.

3. The WR's are very good, though not the type of talent we're used to seeing them recruit. We flirted w/ Priester and he was committed to UGA at one point. Mike Williams we went after, too, and I for one was hoping we'd get him back before he decided to go upstate.

4. Their major weaknesses on the OL were not addressed. Crowder can be a force if he works but they only got one other OL recruit, a 3* whose only offer was CU. I think I remember reading somewhere that they stockpiled some OL last year...?

5. Tyshon Dye will play early. I can't recall who will be the starter this spring but w/ Bellamy gone there will be an opening once Dye gets on campus barring the unexpected emergence of someone currently on the roster.

6. How the hell did they get a guy out of Hawaii? Anyone know that story?

7. I don't know too much a/b the rest of their D-Line. I imagine Lawson plays right away. Ogundeko has a helluva offer sheet but needs to hit the weights... he also didn't go up against any quality competition in NY. I don't know a thing a/b their other DE Rogers but I think we may have evaluated him and chosen not to offer.

8. They've got 3-4 guys who are unlikely to challenge for a spot on the two deep in their careers let alone see the field. We used to have those guys, too, but looking at this class I think we're alot more balanced than we used to be, thankfully.

Conclusion: This class will keep them right at the top of the ACC but doesn't seem likely to effect our rivalry w/ them. There's some game changing talent, 3 or 4 guys I would like to see in garnet and black, and a couple of sleepers. But they didn't do enough to address their inability to win at the LOS against physical teams. With our OL class and some of our front seven studs I think we can expect our 2k13 class to continue the recent trend of success vs our upstate neighbors.