A four-star wide receiver and top-100 national prospect from the Peach State returned to Tiger Town last weekend for his first visit to Clemson since participating in the Dabo Swinney Camp last summer.
Milton (Ga.) High School’s Debron Gatling – a 6-foot-2, 185-pound sophomore in the class of 2024 – was back on campus Saturday, March 12.
“It was really good,” Gatling said of the visit in an interview with The Clemson Insider. “I really liked the facilities and I like what they’re doing to their recovery room. I like what they’re doing new to there, they’re making it bigger and stuff. And I like how it’s just like a family there at Clemson.”
Gatling’s mother came with him on the trip to Clemson and came away impressed after their experience and interactions with Clemson’s staff, particularly Swinney and wide receivers coach Tyler Grisham.
“My mom loved it,” Gatling said. “She said she really liked it, and she really liked Coach Swinney and Coach Grisham.”
Gatling is ranked by Rivals as the No. 10 wide receiver and No. 90 overall prospect in the 2024 class regardless of position. His list of more than two dozen offers includes, to name some, schools such as Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, Auburn, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Texas, Miami, Florida State, Michigan, Penn State and Oregon.
Clemson typically doesn’t start offering recruits in any given class until the summer before their junior year, and the coaches reiterated that to Gatling during Saturday’s visit, but made it clear they are interested in him and that he is welcome on campus whenever he wants to go there.
“That they don’t offer 2024s yet, they wait until June 1 and stuff like that,” Gatling said of what he heard from Swinney and Grisham. “Coach Grisham said he loved my film, and he told me that he loved the way I had camped with him, and he told me that I can come back at any time.”
Added Gatling of what it meant to hear that from the coaches: “It felt good to me, because a lot of people don’t get that opportunity to come back at any time. They told me I could come back at any time, I can even come sit in some meetings and stuff like that. So, it really means a lot, that I know that they’re really recruiting me hard.”
Last Saturday wasn’t the first time Gatling and Swinney met, but Clemson’s head coach continued to make a great impression on the promising prospect when they spoke again Saturday.
“I think he’s a great guy,” Gatling said. “He’s a family-oriented guy, family first always to him, and education before football. So, that really means something to me, that I know that he cares about all of our education, makes sure that we get our degrees and stuff like that before we go to the NFL. I just feel like he’s a genuine guy, and I feel like he can get you to the league. … I feel like he’s just a good coach overall.”
Meanwhile, Gatling feels the relationship he has been building with Grisham “definitely” grew stronger thanks to the time they were able to spend together during the visit last weekend.
“We actually got a chance to play a game of ping-pong together. He’s kind of good at it, so he beat me,” Gatling said, laughing. “And then when they were introducing themselves, I stayed up there with him, talking to him until it was his turn to go up there and talk. So I feel like, yeah, our bond definitely grew more since I was there.”
Along with Clemson, Gatling has made visits to Alabama and Southern Cal so far this offseason. He is scheduled to visit Georgia this Saturday and is looking to get back to Bama in late March, while he is slated to visit Ole Miss on April 2. LSU wants him to visit as well, and he intends to get out to Miami this spring also.
In addition to the aforementioned schools he has visited or plans to, Gatling named Michigan, Oregon, Texas A&M and Texas as some of the others recruiting him the hardest at this stage of his recruiting process.
Clemson would certainly be a strong contender for Gatling if he gets an offer from the Tigers moving forward.
“I feel like they’d definitely be a top school always in my head,” he said. “So, I feel like they’ve got a really good chance.”
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