An elite tight end prospect from Texas visited Clemson for the first time this past Saturday and came away from the visit very impressed and with an offer in hand.
Bridgeland High School (Cypress, Texas) four-star Reid Mikeska was among the recruits on campus for the Tigers’ “spring elite day” — their second junior day of the year.
“It was great,” Mikeska told The Clemson Insider regarding his weekend trip to Clemson. “I loved it and had a great time. It was amazing and definitely exceeded my expectations.”
Mikeska went up to Clemson this past weekend — not knowing if we would get an offer or not — because as he understands it, getting an offer from the Tigers is very rare and they take their time with the whole recruiting process.
He went through the whole junior day festivities and at the very end, Dabo Swinney took Mikeska into his office and offered him in person. He couldn’t remember his exact reaction, but Mikeska recalls himself spacing out.
“It was incredible,” he said of receiving an offer from Clemson’s head coach. “It didn’t even feel real. It was surreal and it’s probably one of the coolest moments of my life. It meant a lot to me and my family for him to do that because it was late at night and it was on his time, so it was really cool.”
Mikeska only got to see about 30 minutes of practice, but from what he saw, he was impressed with the individual drills that Clemson’s tight ends participated in. He was also impressed with how Kyle Richardson coached his position group and how the practice itself was scheduled.
While he had previously developed a relationship with Richardson, this was Mikeska’s first time meeting Clemson’s tight ends coach in person.
“He seemed like a great coach, who has good relationships with his players,” he said of Richardson. “He’s even better in person and he’s a great guy with great energy. You can tell that he cares about his players and the relationships with his players.”
The favorite part of his visit to campus was, of course, getting the offer, but Mikeska also loved touring the athletic facilities and meeting all the coaches, including Swinney.
Mikeska, a top Texas tight end recruit, was born in the Carolinas and has a cousin that goes to Clemson. Needless to say, this past weekend’s visit left him concluding that Clemson is probably the most family-oriented team he’s been around.
“Coach Swinney takes care of his players,” he said, “even long after football.”
Now that Mikeska has the offer he was working towards, where do the Tigers currently stand in his recruitment?
“Easily one of my type schools, for sure,” Mikeska said. “They definitely helped themselves with this visit. They were already one of my top schools without offering me and I saw the campus and they offered. So, that moves them up even higher.
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