Nick Eason laughed at college coaches who asked him if he’d be able to recruit.
After landing three verbal commitments in this cycle — Thompson (Alabaster, Ala.) five-star Peter Woods, Rome (Ga.) High School four-star Stephiylan Green and Warner Robins (Ga.) four-star Vic Burley — Clemson’s defensive tackles coach feels like he’s starting to answer those questions.
Eason is the one who’s won two Super Bowls. He played in the league for 11 years. He’s from South Georgia. So having authentic conversations was always going to come easy for the second-year college coach.
“Clemson will sell itself. I just need to get the recruits here,” Eason said at the Allen N. Reeves Football Complex Tuesday. “Dabo will knock it out of the park being who he is. He’s going to talk for about four hours and you’ll know everything about him, our facilities, our staff, his family and the city of Clemson. That’s what makes us unique and better than any place in the country — it’s the people in the building. I keep saying that we have wonderful staff in every department of our facility and everybody here is just good people.”
If Eason can just get a recruit on campus, he knows that everybody else in the program will do their jobs, which makes it easier for him to recruit. To him, it’s easy, but that comes with the caveat that recruits and their parents know more than just the Nick Eason that serves as Clemson’s defensive tackles coach and run game coordinator.
“I just really take time to allow recruits and parents to see who I am as a person,” he said. “It’s easy to go on the internet and you can Google and see the places I’ve been and some of the things I’ve done, but who really is Nick Eason? That goes down to just talking about my past. All of it ain’t good…so people want to hear those things about who I really am as a person? Who are they going to be sending their son off to be around and be molded as a man and as a football player for the next three-or-four years of their lives?”
So far Eason’s been successful on the trail, but he knows that Clemson isn’t going to get every prospect he recruits. Dabo Swinney’s program has always been able to identify players that not only fit their culture but ones whose values line up with Clemson’s as well.
“The kids that love what we bring to the table as Clemson will come and the ones that don’t will go other places,” Eason said. “It depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for a faith-based program that’s going to treat you like family, that’s gonna develop you as a man…then Clemson’s for you. If you’re trying to chase dollars this ain’t the place for you. And I’m OK with that.
“NIL has really changed the game and kids earn it, but at the end of the day, we don’t lead with that. We have NIL plans here at Clemson, but we’re not going to lead with that. We want you to love Clemson like I loved and came here for the reasons of education, the facilities and the people in this building and how we can mold you as a man — that hasn’t changed. I’m just really excited to be a part of it.”
Eason was asked if he believes recruits are aware of the long-standing defensive traditions that a program like Clemson has.
“My story has always been — I bring guys here on recruiting visits — they’ll come sit in my room and they’ll see all the names,” he said. “They’ll see my name. They’ll see the DJ Reader’s of the world. But, those have been our stories and for me, just because I coached in the NFL, I played in the NFL and I did this and that and the third, doesn’t mean that’s gonna be you. If you put the work in, it can happen like that for you, but if you don’t and you’re lazy and you don’t love football, it might not happen for you.
“Everybody has kind of created their own story. All the great players that have came through here have created their own stories by the hard work they put in. It’s just not gonna happen because you choose to come here. The championships that are won here at Clemson are won when nobody’s watching.”
As Eason continues to get commitments coming in, he knows he can’t get complacent. Eason realizes that he’s got to work even harder. He tries not to read the newspaper clippings, as he wants to make sure he remains humble and stays hungry during this process.
Eason went on to say that he feels like a lot of times that people or teams that have had success in recruiting and success in winning, they get real comfortable. That won’t be him.
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