At the beginning of June, Clemson's 2013 recruiting class had not began to take shape and many wondered if the Tigers would be able to have a full recruiting class come next February. Fast forward one month later and Clemson has made strides toward having one of the best signing classes in team history.
Robert Knemdiche, the nations #1 overall prospect by recruiting services, made his commitment to play in Death Valley at Swinney's summer camp. Most importantly, Clemson has used the defensive out of Georgia to springboard them up to the top of the list of many recruits. The list includes the top defensive tackle Montravius Adams and the top 2 cornerbacks in the country, Vernon Hargreaves, and Kendal Fuller. While Dabo is making strides on the defensive side, the Tiger recruiting staff has managed to climb up the boards on offensive player lists as well. Clemson has a good chance of landing 3-4 skill players ranked in the top 5 of their respective positions.
This isn't the first time Swinney has landed highly touted players out of state. Swinney went into Florida and out recruited Urban Meyer to get C.J. Spiller. In 2011, he sold Sammy Watkins on Clemson and then went out and signed Tony Steward and Stephon Anthony on National Signing day. He's gotten some highly rated players before but can he get a handful of top players in one signing class. He has never had the advantage of a top ten player commiting to him this early into the recruiting period.
Right now it appears as if Swinney is using the commitment of Knemdiche as a momentum builder to convince other 4 and 5 star players that Clemson is an up and coming program. Next year we could be talking about a top 5 recruiting class in the Tiger Class of 2013 being the best ever at Clemson. We could see a wealth of talent run down The Hill at Death Valley.