Josh Petty (6-5 262) is a 2025 prospect out of Roswell (GA) Fellowship Christian School who is one of the nation’s top offensive tackles in the 2025 class. And plenty of schools are interested in his services, including Clemson. Tigers’ offensive line coach Thomas Austin recently reached out to Petty to start the recruiting process.
“I’d say it was about a month ago when he first contacted me,” Petty says in looking back on his first conversation with Austin. “I had some speed training at the field and my coach called me over after practice and I talked to him for a good about 10, 15 minutes.”
Petty said he is in the process of building his relationship with Austin.
“Me and Coach Austin talked quite a bit. He says he likes my film, definitely wants me to get up to campus, maybe go to the camp of theirs and just tells me that he doesn’t really offer 2025s and they don’t do that early in the process,” he acknowledged. “So definitely getting up there to talk to those coaches and see my next steps with them.”
He also has a few connections to Clemson and its football program.
“I know it’s a big school and a couple of my guys from Fellowship go there now,” Petty said. “Not playing football, but he tells me it’s awesome up there and the environment, the student section is wild.”
Petty picked up his first offer from Georgia Tech in early January and has since collected other Power Five offers from USC, Georgia, LSU, Tennessee, Auburn, Notre Dame, Michigan, Penn State, Oregon, Stanford, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, North Carolina, Duke, Virginia Tech, and Boston College.
He admits it’s quite flattering that so many big-name schools have shown interest.
“Recruitment is crazy. A couple months ago I was struggling trying to get offers and a young kid just trying to earn an offer and become known to these coaches, trying to play at the next level,” Petty admitted. “And after these last couple of months, offers have spiked coming in, being able to go on this recruiting journey, treated like first class and it’s crazy to me. Being able to talk to all these coaches and just have this unreal experience that I was always hoping for as a kid is amazing.”
Petty said he is planning on taking a bunch of summer visits, and Clemson will make that cut.
“Got to go see what’s going on up there,” he vocalized. “Over the summer, I’m definitely going to try to get that visit in. I’ve got a couple visits scheduled over the summer, so really, it’s just finding dates that line up perfectly with my football schedule and my parents’ schedule. I’m going to probably go to the West Coast. I’m going to go to Oregon, Stanford, probably Texas, and then I’m going to go up north to Michigan and Ohio State. Probably Tennessee again. There are a bunch of schools we want to see.”
What would a Clemson offer mean?
“It would mean a lot. Like I said, I’ve used this word a couple times, Clemson’s definitely a statement offer,” Petty noted. “And that school is a big school that I’m definitely going to consider later in my recruitment and look at going there because I know what they do for linemen, and I know what they do on campus in trying to bring you to the next level.”
