Even when Jacob Ashley was committed to UNCC, he had been hearing sparingly from Clemson.
After he decommitted from the school that he originally offered his verbal pledge to, Oceanside Collegiate Academy (Mount Pleasant, S.C.) three-star offensive tackle’s talks with the Tigers began to heat up.
“Clemson definitely was one of the first schools to reach out to and let me know that they’re still interested,” Ashley told TCI this past weekend. “And still gonna possibly be able to work something out with a PWO offer.”
In addition to Clemson, Ashley has heard from Florida State, Wake Forest, North Carolina, Coastal Carolina and Mississippi State has inquired about him as well.
Ashley got on the phone with Clemson offensive analyst Thomas Austin on Friday. The two already have a preexisting history with one another. Prior to Austin returning to Clemson, he was the offensive line coach at Georgia State, where he actually offered Ashley a scholarship. Austin has kept tabs on the senior offensive lineman ever since.
“He said he’s still interested,” Ashley said. “He invited me to come up for the game this [past] Saturday against UConn. He invited me up there. I train with [Clemson four-star offensive tackle commit] Collin Sadler. Me and him are really, really good buddies. He was telling me that he had his official visit [last] weekend…we all agreed that because there were so many official visits that we might as well not visit Clemson this [past] weekend.”
Since this past weekend was dominated by Clemson’s official visitors in the 2022 recruiting class, Ashley and his parents decided that visiting Clemson another time would likely be a better idea, so he could get some more face time with the Tigers’ coaching staff.
With that being said, how does Ashley weigh the possibility of being a PWO at Clemson or being placed on a scholarship elsewhere?
“That’s actually one of the things when I went up and visited Clemson earlier this summer, that we all went out to dinner and I was talking with Coach [Robbie] Caldwell, Coach [Tony] Elliott and Coach Austin about. They were saying the exact same thing, that preferred walk-ons get treated just like scholarship players at Clemson. That’s definitely a plus…it really comes down to where it feels right to me. If I’m offered a full ride somewhere else and as a PWO at Clemson, but Clemson’s the one that feels right, then I’ll take the PWO offer.”
Ashley indicated that he needs to get up to different schools and determine what feels right and feels like home. Whether that will be Clemson remains to be seen, but Sadler has been on Ashley’s case since he announced his decommitment.
“Collin’s been on my tail ever since I decommitted about how I need to get up to Clemson,” Ashley said. “I know he wants nothing more for me and him to get up there together and we talked about how if I do come up there, we’re gonna room together and all this and that…Collin has been on my tail pushing real hard. He’s practically begging me to get up there.”
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