Among the large group of defensive ends on official visits at Clemson last weekend, two, Santana Harvey and Desmond Malpress, have committed. A third, JiQuan Rogers, appears to be on the verge. And a fourth, Elijah Cox (6-5 230) of Atlanta, came away impressed enough to have the Tigers among his top five.
“Just the. environment, the coaches, who they are as men, stuck out to me,” Cox said. “Developing on and off the field, and how I will be as a man after football, for a life after football. It was really a great experience answering my questions. It was a great time.”
Clemson defensive ends coach Chris Rumph spent time with Cox and laid out his vision for what he could develop into as part of the program.
“I believe he had a great plan,” Cox said. “To be honest, they really emphasized my diversity. It’s really up to them where I play.”
Cox will continue with official visits to Florida State and Ole Miss, but Clemson has set the bar high for the others, and is high up on the board with Cox.
“Definitely one of the programs that I value a lot,” he said. “It puts them up there. I love Clemson for sure. Just doing my due diligence, taking the time to process everything. I haven’t sat down and really processed where they’ll be at, but I’m just still taking everything in.”
Cox also has offers from Georgia Tech, Tulane, Wake Forest, Kentucky, Missouri, Purdue, Baylor, Colorado, West Virginia, and East Carolina.
Last season, Cox had 35 tackles with eight tackles for loss and four sacks.