The Clemson Insider caught up with a big-time offensive lineman who made his first-ever visit to Clemson last week and left campus with an offer in hand.
The Loomis Chaffee School (Windsor, Conn.) four-star Olaus Alinen reported an offer from the Tigers after his visit. Alinen (6-7, 300) is the No. 14 offensive tackle and No. 127 overall prospect in the 2023 class, per the 247Sports Composite rankings.
“It was good to spend time around the people, spend some time around the facilities and get a feel for it,” he said. “They do things really differently than a lot of other schools. They recruit differently. The place has a good atmosphere and it seems kind of like a family type of thing.”
Clemson is just the latest school to get involved with Alinen, a native of Finland, who also holds offers from Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, Miami, Stanford and Southern Cal, among many others on his list of 40-plus offers.
“It’s an honor to get it,” Alinen said of receiving the offer from Clemson. “They’re really selective with that. I definitely appreciate them for giving me that opportunity to be one of the very few players to get an offer from them.”
While Thomas Austin had previously stopped by The Loomis Chaffee School before, this was Alinen’s first time getting to spend an extended period of one-on-one time with Clemson’s offensive line coach.
“It was really good to spend some time around him,” he said of Austin. “I think he does a good job with the o-line and he knows what he’s doing. He’s a genuinely nice guy as well. He’s a passionate guy, but he tries to fix the techniques and he focuses on detail. I also think the guys enjoy working with him as well.”
As far as his recruitment is concerned, Alinen will be cutting down his list to 4-or-5 teams, which is all of the schools that he will be taking official visits to. He told TCI that Clemson is “definitely under consideration,”, especially after his visit and now that he has an offer in hand.
Alinen has an idea of which schools he’s keying in on, but he still has a couple of questions to thumb through. He’ll be at the University of Alabama this upcoming weekend and plans on making the Crimson Tide one of his official visits.
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