Clemson became the latest school to offer Jonathan Paylor after the four-star athlete of Cummings High School (Burlington, N.C.) participated in the fifth and final day of the Dabo Swinney Camp on Sunday, June 12
Paylor reported the offer just a day after his first-ever trip down to Clemson.
After Clemson pulled the trigger on a scholarship, Paylor’s offensive coordinator at Cummings, Jasmine Vinson, contacted him. In-between lifeguard shifts at his summer job, he phoned Clemson wide receivers coach Tyler Grisham to confirm the good news.
“It was crazy because I was at work when I called him,” Paylor told The Clemson Insider. “It was a crazy experience because he let his kids say it for him. I don’t know what happened, but I just screamed like, ‘LET’S GO!” and all of his kids started laughing. It was a fun experience.”
After Grisham’s kids relayed Paylor the good news, Clemson’s wide receivers coach told him that he really wanted him to get back down to Clemson, get around the players, get familiar with the staff and come down for a game sometime this upcoming season.
More importantly, Grisham wants him to focus on his grades going forward.
Now that he has an offer from Clemson in hand, Paylor imagines that the Tigers will play a big role in his recruitment going forward. With that said, what does an offer from a school like Clemson mean to Paylor and his recruitment?
“It was phenomenal,” he said. “It actually puts them close to the top, (they’re in my) top-five actually. For Clemson to offer me, to know that I’m a great player, I’m a great athlete and also on top of that, I’m a great student. To know that I keep my grades good and have the potential to play in college and get an offer from them, it’s great.”
When we asked Paylor what he’s looking for in a school at the next level, he continued to stress just how important academics will factor into any decision he makes. When we spoke with him right after his visit, Paylor was definitely intrigued by how much Clemson coach Dabo Swinney and his staff stress the importance of education.
“For me, it doesn’t really matter how that team is looking the year before or anything like that,” Paylor said. “For me, it’s just about the connection with the coaches and to see how far I can graduate. My biggest thing is I really want to graduate college. To know that I can get a degree from any school is amazing, but a school like Clemson, it would be great to have. When I’m finished — if I make it to the NFL — I’ll have a degree from college. That’s my biggest thing.”
Paylor (5-9, 170) currently ranks as the nation’s No. 4 athlete and the No. 18 overall prospect regardless of position in the 2024 class, per 247Sports.