Zechariah Owens didn’t know how to react. His mouth was wide open.
The four-star offensive lineman out of Georgia’s Eagles Landing Christian Academy was on campus for Clemson’s Elite Visit Day on Saturday. After listening to Dabo Swinney’s presentation, he promptly gave Clemson’s head coach a big hug and headed into Thomas Austin’s office.
Clemson’s offensive line coach asked Owens why he wanted a Clemson offer.
“And I said because they have everything I wanted,” Owens recalled in an exclusive interview with The Clemson Insider Sunday. “They checked the boxes on everything I wanted for the next four years of my life. Everything I wanted, they have. And when I told him that, he offered me right there.”
What did that mean to Owens?
“It’s amazing,” he said. “I’m not gonna miss the opportunity to take advantage of it.”
Owens had heard rumors about an offer in the cards, but we’d be stretching the truth to say he expected it. To understand how and why he earned an offer from Clemson this past weekend, it all dates back to when he participated in the Dabo Swinney Camp this past summer.
“I went to the camp,” Owens said. “I did really good at the camp. All the coaches loved my personality. The main thing was, you lose weight and you’ll get your offer. I was weighing 380-pounds at the time — bear with me — it was more of like a, ‘We want to offer you, but let’s see how dedicated you are with your discipline and where you stand on.’”
Owens accepted the challenge.
He did well in the classroom and lost a lot of weight. When he went into Austin’s office, he was told that Clemson had been wanting to offer him, but they wanted to see how he managed his weight.
The rest is now history.
Clemson is currently the No. 1 school in Owens’ recruitment. He said that with zero hesitation and meant every word.
A lot of that has to do with the impression the Tigers made on him this past weekend, but he also maintains a close relationship with Austin.
“He came to my school during January like three times,” Owens said. “So, we was always like close. We built the relationship. I sat down and talked with him, laughed it up, talk seriously, talk about football, talk about family. I already had the relationship. If anything it was just building a relationship with Coach Swinney.
“I already had the relationship with Coach Austin. When I actually say I love a coach, I think of them as a father figure. I already think of Coach Austin as a father figure because he shows me that he’s a husband before a coach. He shows me how much he cares about his family before he puts football. Football is his main thing in life, but he puts family and God first, before anything.”
Owens said that he was already sold on Austin, but after he got to meet Swinney, it confirmed that Clemson is a place where he wants to be.
“It was amazing,” he said of meeting Swinney. “Just hearing his story about his past and everything he’s been through has just given me so much motivation to keep working for what I want. I know that hard work pays off.”
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