THE WEST ZONE message board | SHOP NOW: DEALS on CLEMSON apparel

1. The perceived long recruiting drought/nightmare is over.

Clemson scored a commitment Friday from Snellville (Ga.) South Gwinnett four-star defensive end Justin Mascoll.

In recent weeks, we’ve disagreed a few times with the supposition the Tigers had lost momentum on the trail following their national championship triumph. Long story short, here’s believing Clemson to be better off by pacing itself and taking its swings at the top targets on the board instead of filling up for the sake of it. Not to mention expectations for Clemson’s prowess have perhaps exceeded reason in some cases.

The Tigers went close to seven weeks (47 days) without a commitment.

For context, last spring featured a pair of consecutive two-month stretches (62 and 59 days) where Clemson didn’t secure a pledge, sandwiched around the May commitment from linebacker/end Logan Rudolph. Both cycles carry similar circumstances of recruiting to a relatively small class.

To refresh the numbers, Clemson is at six pledges for a class that projects comparably in size to the 2017 haul. At this time a year ago, the Tigers had nine commitments, one of which they would eventually lose.

They had a 3.78 per-prospect star rating at this juncture a year ago.

Right now Clemson is at 3.83, second in the nation for teams with at least five commitments (USC has a 4.4 average with five).

Of the final six commitments last year, two were five-stars, two were four-stars and two high-three stars. That’s a flat 4.0 average.

So on a per-prospect basis, the Tigers had to wait a bit longer to secure the higher caliber of prospect.

That’s the risk they feel worth taking at this early stage in the cycle, especially with places in this class at a premium.