The Insider Report
It is time for this week’s edition of The Insider Report.
We hope everyone had a great weekend. It was a good one at Doug Kingsmore Stadium where the Tigers started the season with a sweep of Cincinnati.
Decision Week for Simpson
Clemson 2022 quarterback target Ty Simpson, a top-50 national prospect from Martin (Tenn.) Westview, is set to announce his commitment this Friday in a ceremony at his high school.
Alabama, Clemson, Ole Miss and Tennessee are the formal finalists for Simpson, who has collected close to 40 total offers.
Simpson’s recruitment has come down to a battle between the Tigers and Crimson Tide. If Simpson was announcing today, we believe Alabama would be his choice. However, Simpson isn’t announcing today, so we’ll have to see if anything changes over the next few days.
Should Simpson commit elsewhere, Clemson would shift its focus to recruiting Austin (Texas) Westlake four-star quarterback Cade Klubnik. The Tigers have been showing substantial interest in Klubnik, as we’ve reported, but have yet to pull the trigger on an offer as they await Simpson’s decision.
Klubnik is highly interested in Clemson and traveled to campus with his family in October to check out the school and attend the Syracuse game at Death Valley.
Clemson Makes a Move
Clemson made a move over the weekend with a standout defensive end in the 2022 class, pulling the trigger on an offer to Boonville (Mo.) four-star DJ Wesolak.
Wesolak was informed of the offer by defensive ends coach Lemanski Hall on Sunday after spending about 45 minutes on the phone with defensive coordinator Brent Venables on Saturday. The coaches told Wesolak they’ve watched his film multiple times and see a lot of potential in him as a defensive end, especially considering he has only played the position for a year after previously playing middle linebacker. The coaches love what he brings to the table as an edge rusher with his speed, athleticism and violent style of play.
Wesolak and Hall have built a good relationship while staying in contact over the past month and a half. Wesolak told us they talk about anything from football to the recruiting process to life in general, and Wesolak said he feels Hall is one of the coaches he can go to for advice or if he has a question about anything.
Wesolak, who holds more than 30 total offers, wants to visit Clemson and some other schools such as Notre Dame, Alabama, Arizona and Cal before narrowing down his recruitment. He named Clemson, Notre Dame, Missouri, Texas, Oregon, Arizona State and Alabama as some of the schools that have been recruiting him hard.
Wesolak doesn’t have an official top schools list at this point in the process, but told us that if he did, Clemson would definitely be on it. “Obviously I love what they have to offer,” he said. “They have morals, education, football, life after football – they’re really strict on trying to get their players ready for after football. So, definitely have high interest in them.”
Roof is in Clemson
Spring practice begins on Wednesday in Clemson and there will be a couple of new faces around the facility and a couple of familiar ones as well.
Speaking of new faces, as we told you in previous reports, Ted Roof was expected to join Dabo Swinney’s staff as defensive consultant. Well, we can tell you that Roof is now in Clemson and will be available to help the Tigers this spring.
Just so know, since he is listed as a consultant, Roof is not an official employee of Clemson Athletics, which means he is not being paid by Clemson. Though he will help the defense this year, Roof technically will not be list an official member of Swinney’s staff since he is not an employee of Clemson University.
Last year, Roof was the defensive coordinator at Vanderbilt. He was the defensive coordinator at App State in 2019 and was the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at NC State in 2018. He served as the defensive coordinator at Georgia Tech from 2013-’17 and was the DC at Penn State in 2012.
From 2004-’07, Roof was the head coach at Duke. He also served as the defensive coordinator there from 2001-’03 before getting the head coaching job.
Roof’s first stint at Georgia Tech came in 1998 when he began as the linebackers’ coach and then moved over to defensive coordinator from 1999-’01.
The 57-year-old played linebacker at Georgia Tech from 1982-’85 and has spent all 34 years of his coaching career as a college football coach.
Familiar face will be at practice.
As TCI reported last Friday, former Clemson player and graduate coach Thomas Austin has rejoined Dabo Swinney’s staff as an offensive analyst.
We confirmed on Monday, Thomas is already in Clemson and is already hard at work. He will be helping the Tigers this spring.
The former Clemson standout coached at Georgia State the last two years as its offensive line coach. He joined the Georgia State staff in January of 2019, after serving on Swinney's staff as a graduate assistant from 2015-'18.
Our sources have told us Swinney drew Austin away from Georgia State with the idea of eventually replacing Robbie Caldwell as the next O-Line coach when the 67-year-old eventually decides to retire. From what we understand, Austin will make more than the average analyst makes to help match what he was making as the offensive line coach at GSU.
Before going to GSU, Austin spent the previous four seasons (2015-18) at Clemson working with the offensive staff as the Tigers reached the College Football Playoff each year, including titles in 2016 and 2018 and a runner-up finish in 2015. In addition to serving as a video graduate assistant for 2018's title team, he assisted Caldwell with the offensive line.
A 2009 graduate of Clemson, Austin was an All-America and two-time all-conference lineman who started 38 games for the Tigers from 2006-'09. Following his college career, he signed an NFL free agent contract with the New England Patriots in 2010. He played in the NFL with Houston, Carolina and Indianapolis from 2010-13.
Things look good for Wake Forest game
On a Zoom call with the ACC media on Monday, men’s basketball coach Brad Brownell said what happened on Monday will go a long way in deciding if they will get the opportunity to play at Wake Forest on Wednesday night.
At the time, Brownell said they were hopeful.
Our basketball sources told us Monday evening that today was a good day for the program and they “seem to be on path” to play the Demon Deacons.
Clemson returned to practice on Saturday, though not every player was able to attend.
The program was paused last week due to positive tests results of COVID-19. The Tigers’ games at Notre Dame last Wednesday and at Pittsburgh on Sunday were postponed as a result.
Prior to this past Saturday, Clemson had not practiced since Feb. 14. The Tigers last played on Feb. 12 when they beat Georgia Tech with a last-second shot from Nick Honor.
Will Clemson get an opportunity to play Boston College?
After the ACC replaced Boston College with Louisville on Jan. 27, after the Eagles’ program was paused, Clemson was hoping to reschedule with BC for a game on March 3.
However, our sources are telling us they don’t think the game will be made up.
As you know, scheduling is very fluid right now, so things can change. However, it appears likely Clemson and BC will not be able to get together on March 3 at Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson.
Which Injured Tigers Will Be Back for South Carolina Series
Clemson got off to a great start this weekend without several starters. With the rivalry series on tap for next weekend we checked in with our sources to find out which injured players are expected to be back for the South Carolina series.
The good news is we have been told that Kier Meredith is expected to be back Friday. The bad news is we were told from our sources that Hackenberg, Ingle, Hall and Askew will all likely miss the series.
If the Tigers play as well as they did against Cincinnati it should be a fun weekend. We will learn a lot more about the team for sure.
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Last edited by Will Vandervort; 02-23-2021 at 09:24 AM.
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