Clemson hoping to gobble up South Carolina

By Robert Rousseau  |   Thursday, June 25, 2009  |  Comments( 4 )

Clemson Tigers
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Most college football experts will tell you that claiming victory in the recruiting battle in your state is important if you want to field a team capable of winning conference championships. Do all teams subscribe to that philosophy? No.

Nevertheless, enough do that it would seem worth mentioning that out of the seven verbal commitments the Clemson Tigers have received to date, six have come from their home state of South Carolina. And all three of their highest-rated commitments -- four-star players Martavis Bryant (WR), Joe Craig (athlete) and DeAndre Hopkins (DB) -- have come from their home state.

Now, when you compare that to the South Carolina Gamecocks, who have received only four verbal commitments from instate prospects to date, the Tigers are looking pretty good. Of course, it's close. In the end, who wins or loses the instate recruiting battle will probably boil down to three players.

We're talking about running back Marcus Lattimore and defensive ends Corey Milller and Brandon Willis. Lattimore, a bruising running back who is widely considered as one of the top five players in the country, has both the Gamecocks and Tigers on his radar. In fact, so do top 100 prospects Miller and Willis. So, the battle lines are drawn.

Last season, the two teams matched one another, compelling four of the top 10 prospects in the state to come to their respective programs. That said, South Carolina managed to net three of the top five recruits, whereas Clemson only got one. With a new sheriff in town at Clemson, one has to wonder if Dabo Swinney has what it takes to do better instate this season. If he does, that should go a long way toward securing his future at Clemson.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
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About Robert Rousseau

Robert Rousseau is a sports writer that has been published in a variety of print and online venues. He’s been writing for RealFootball365.com for almost three years now. When Rousseau isn’t writing about college football he tends to be penning mixed martial arts pieces for MMAFighting.com or...
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