Clemson recently played host to this big Peach State offensive lineman with 20 scholarship offers under his belt.
Gabriel Fortson of North Cobb Christian School (Kennesaw, Ga.) – a 6-foot-4, 300-pound senior in the class of 2023 – made an unofficial visit to campus for the Louisiana Tech game on Sept. 17.
“It was great,” he said to The Clemson Insider. “I loved every second of it.”
It wasn’t Fortson’s first gameday visit to Clemson, though it was his first for a night game at Death Valley.
“The new lights and the new jumbotron that they have, they just recently put up, was really nice,” he said. “It was great. There’s a Tiger on top of it, and that was pretty cool to me personally. But all in all, it was really cool. The stadium was packed out, and you could barely even hear yourself think.”
Fortson made the trip to Tiger Town with his mother, who is very fond of Clemson as well.
“She loves it,” he said. “She loves it about just as much as I do.”
While on campus, they were able to talk a lot with Tigers offensive line coach Thomas Austin, who invited Fortson to attend the game.
“I feel like he got to know me and my mom pretty well,” Fortson said.
Austin explained to Fortson where he stands with Clemson in the recruiting process as far as a potential offer from the Tigers.
Clemson is currently full on the offensive line in its 2023 recruiting class, with three OL commitments on board, but an offer to Fortson isn’t out of the question depending on certain circumstances.
“They’re waiting on a few things, but if those few things happen, then I’ll be one of the first to end up with an offer there,” he said.
Fortson owns offers from schools such as Georgia Tech, North Carolina, NC State, Duke, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Missouri and UCF, to name some.
An offer from the Tigers would be a dream come true for Fortson, who explained to TCI why Clemson is one of what he called his “dream schools.”
“Just the culture that they have around that football program alone is something that I look at, and it honestly makes me feel warm,” he said. “That’s exactly what I want in a school. If I’m going to spend four years there, I want to feel like I’m a part of the family and not just the player on their team, and Clemson does that really well.”
Dear Old Clemson is excited to announce a limited edition football and poster signed by Clemson’s Avengers.
Now there is a new way you can support Clemson student-athletes. Purchase collectibles from Dear Old Clemson and the proceeds with go to support Clemson student-athletes. Visit Dear Old Clemson to find out how you can help!
