The January 28th junior day at Clemson was the first chance for recruits on the offensive side to meet with new coordinator Garrett Riley. Of course, they were all ears to hear about what he has in store to revitalize the Tiger offense. Receiver Alex Taylor (6-2 175) was there and said he had about 13 hours of conversations with the various coaches, including Dabo Swinney, receivers coach Tyler Grisham and Riley.
“Overall, the visit was great and I got to spend a lot of time with the coaching staff as a whole,” Taylor said. “That was probably my favorite part, just spending time with them and catching up with Coach Grisham and meeting some new recruits.”
In particular, Taylor said he enjoyed the long session the recruits had with Swinney as the Tigers head man talked a lot about his past and what has made him the successful head coach he is today.
“He talked about two hours with the whole group, so I learned more about his story, which was pretty cool,” Taylor. “I don’t really know much about a lot of head coaches out here, but for him to sit down and knowing all the recruits’ names was very cool to see.”
As for that offense, Taylor said he still has more to learn about what Riley plans to do, but one thing he does know is big plays will be back in fashion at Clemson.
“Coach Riley just got there, so they haven’t said as a staff yet what they are doing with the new offense, but I know they are going to throw the ball a lot, which is good for me being a receiver, being able to make plays much more than last year’s offense,” Taylor said. “That’s exciting for me to see how the offense woks out with that.”
Clemson was in good shape with Taylor prior to the junior day visit. He camped there last summer and was also in for a game in October. He has the Tigers in his final seven along with Virginia Tech, NC State, North Carolina, Tennessee, Penn State and Cincinnati.
“They are definitely one of my favorite schools. It’s hard not to like them,” Taylor said. “they pretty much did everything great. Everyone knew who I was and treated me like family. They are definitely one of my top schools in my recruitment process and I definitely look forward to coming back up there.”
Taylor plans to take more visits and in particular wants to see Penn State, Tennessee and Virginia Tech. He’d like to make his decision in June or July.
Last season Taylor emerged as one of the top receivers in the country with 65 catches for 1034 yards and 12 touchdowns. He averaged over 16 yards per catch. As a sophomore he caught 44 passes for 682 yards and 7 touchdowns.
