2021 DE Kelvin Gilliam (6-3 230) of Highland Spring, VA already has garnered numerous major offers including Michigan, Michigan State, West Virginia and, Georgia Tech, NC State and Virginia Tech. There is mutual interest with Clemson and he attended the spring game in April. He’d love to land an offer from the Tigers and realizes patience is the proper approach at this point.
“Oh, yes. I talked to a Clemson coach right after I got the Michigan offer and he said that Trevor Lawrence didn’t get his Clemson offer until his 11th-grade year, because they don’t really offer sophomores,” Gilliam said. “He said to be patient and trust the process. I definitely want to make it back. Probably during the summertime,” I will visit for camp, and then I want to come back during the season for just a regular visit.”
Gilliam said the visit to Clemson for the spring game opened his eyes about the program and further generated his desire for an offer.
“Really, the spring game itself is what stood out,” Gilliam said. “I got the chance to look at what commits were, and what recruits were there, and I got the chance to talk to the coaches. I got the chance to sit down with coach Mike Reed Pants and coach Todd Bates. It was a great experience. If the people are showing up for a spring game like this, imagine what it would be like for a real game. But I was just amazed by how many people were there just for a spring game. And how much support the Clemson community has for them.”
One of the coaches Gilliam spent time with on his visit was DeAndre McDaniel. He said their conversation was very informative and gave him some tremendous insight into how things work at Clemson.
“He told me how at Clemson they don’t take a lot of transfers or JUCO players,” Gilliam said. “He says they feel like it’s not fair to the guys who commit there and then some JUCO guy comes in. It’s something they don’t tolerate. He said Clemson is just a different type of program and they want to develop their own guys, and that’s how they win all these championships.”
This spring Gilliams also has visited North Carolina, Michigan State and NC State.
