Prior to his commitment to Northwestern University this past Sunday, Clemson had been showing interest in St. Edward (Lakewood, Oh.) four-star outside linebacker Michael Kilbane.
While Kilbane verbally pledged to the Big Ten school this past weekend, he recently spoke to The Clemson Insider about the interest he had been receiving from Clemson.
“Coach (Robbie) Caldwell, he called up my high school coach asking about me,” Kilbane said. “I’ve had a little bit of contact with Coach Caldwell and Coach (Nick) Eason. We were talking about a potential visit at some point, so if that works scheduling-wise, that would definitely be a really cool experience to learn about the program and potentially move forward with something like that.”
According to Kilbane, Clemson’s defensive tackles coach told him that he wanted to get him down on a visit and that he really liked him as a player.
“Obviously Clemson is a huge program,” he continued. “A huge program sending a message like that to me and having interest, it really makes me feel good about myself as a player. Getting interest from a school like that is kind of surreal.
“Also, another thing about Clemson that I noticed is that compared to a bunch of other Power Five schools who’ve offered hundreds of kids — no disrespect to that philosophy — Clemson doesn’t really offer a lot of people. A program being that specific in recruiting and being able to talk to me and all that, I think that’s really special.”
Kilbane imagines that if a visit to Clemson were to take place, it would have to happen this summer. He was thinking about setting up a date in the spring, but he had wrestling and his schedule is pretty complicated, so he didn’t have a chance to get out on many visits.
As of last week, Kilbane had locked in official visits to Northwestern, Cincinnati and West Virginia. He committed to Northwestern after an official visit this past weekend and the latter two official visits were set up for the first week of June.
Getting a better feel for Kilbane and his game, while he doesn’t model himself after any particular player, others have told him that he reminds them of former University of Michigan and current Detroit Lions pass-rusher Aidan Hutchinson.
Kilbane also mentioned that Ohio State’s defensive line coach Lary Johnson told him that his game is reminiscent of that of Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Sam Hubbard.
“I would like to say that I’m a pretty high-motored player,” he said when asked to describe himself as a player. “I feel like I always go 100% every single play and that’s led to a lot of my production, just like a lot of effort plays. Then, I’d also like to think I’m pretty fast and strong because I run a 4.75 40, bench over 300, and squat almost 500. I’d like to think I use my physical tools pretty well. I think I utilize a lot of effort when I play and then, obviously, I use my physical tools as well.”
Rivals considers Kilbane (6-4. 245) to be the nation’s No. 18 outside linebacker in the class of 2023.
— Photo for this article courtesy of Michael Kilbane.
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