After finishing with a primarily positive season, Clemson football now looks to the 2023 season.  Every new year comes a new batch of recruits, and Clemson had a field day with this class. Clemson ended up with the 12-best class in the country and the second-best in the ACC, and this article will talk about the positives and negatives of this.

first and foremost, the biggest recruit that Clemson was able to get in this class was a 5-star defensive lineman Peter Woods. Woods played for Tompson in Alabama and was a pest for anyone lined up against him. At 6’2 and 280 pounds, he is small for the position but makes up for it with his speed and his athleticism. Woods had a strong connection to Alabama throughout his childhood but chose Clemson because of the school’s atmosphere and the resources given to its athletes to allow them to succeed in and out of the classroom. This 4-time state champion has the chance to be a day 1 starter and has a promising future.

After DJ left for Oregan state, we were a little shallow at quarterback depth. However, with the arrival of 4-star Christopher Vizzina, we are now a lot safer if Cade is to get hurt. Also playing in Alabama, the 6-foot-4 quarterback has been throwing dimes since winning the starting job his freshman year. He is very mobile but can navigate a pocket long enough to send out dimes to his receivers. He will have to sit behind Cade as he adjusts to the college level, but is bound to become a success when it is his time to shine.

Looking back on the defensive end of the ball, Georgia star Vic Burly is set to make an instant splash. Burly had 188 tackles and 22 sacks in high school and is a consensus top-80 player across the country. While at high school, he helped carry his team to a 12-1 record and a state title. However, Burly’s commitment to the school doesn’t come as a surprise for he is the cousin to the defensive run game manager at the school. 

While most schools would take both Woods and Burly and call that a good day for their defensive line, Clemson went above and beyond with the pickup of Stephiylan Green. Green managed to get 63 tackles and had a monstrous 23 tackles for a loss. While he doesn’t play as flashy as the other recruits, he doesn’t need to. Combine this depth in recruits and the depth that we had last season, we are going to bounce right back up after losing Myles Murphy and Brian Brecce. 

While this class is deep and has many strengths some of Clemson’s competition also had a good signing day. The main team that might scare some fans it Flordia State. Flordia State had the third recruiting class in the ACC and picked up athletes from almost all positions, with the biggest recruit being 5-star receiver Hakeem Williams. A strong and powerful Florida state could question Clemson’s decade-long dominance of the ACC. Another one of our rivals that are stepping up their game is South Carolina. The reining Carolina bowl champions exposed some of Clemson’s flaws last year and managed to improve with the 20th-best recruiting class this year. Despite this, both of these teams still are ranked below Clemson.

While this article covered just the recruits, it did not mention any other improvements that the team has made. One of these things is the firing of the offensive coordinator and bringing in Garret Riley. Clemson definitely made noise with this class and told the country that they are not finished.