This past Wednesday, Clemson’s coaches hit the recruiting trail to meet with some in-state class of 2022 commits at a local high school.
Head coach Dabo Swinney, offensive coordinator/tight ends coach Tony Elliott and offensive line coach Robbie Caldwell made their way to Greenville High School to visit with four-star offensive tackle commit Collin Sadler and three-star tight end commit Josh Sapp.
“It was incredible,” Sadler told The Clemson Insider. “That’s the first time that coaches like that have been to Greenville High in a really, really long time. It was cool. The biggest thing that came to me was that it just wasn’t for me and Josh Sapp. That’s just building a pathway for a lot more players to come in these later years, which is really cool to me.”
Clemson’s message to Sadler has been consistent and this visit was more of the same.
“The biggest thing is it was just informative,” he said. “They just let us know the fine print of everything that was going on Signing Day and everything we gotta do. It was just really a ‘Are you guys comfortable where you’re standing with us?’ type of thing. It was a check-in. It was really like a family sitdown type of deal.”
It doesn’t dawn lightly on Sadler that he and Sapp are both a part of the same recruiting class.
“That’s really special,” Sadler said. “It’s really rare that a program of that level would come to a public high school to visit two guys who’ve already committed there and are in the same class. It was just a real honor for us. We realized that we have something really special going on here at Greenville. It’s awesome.”
Each and every visit with the staff just reaffirms to Sadler that he’s making the right decision in coming to Clemson.
“One thing that I really did learn, especially from this [visit], is all the coaches at Clemson, they don’t change if you take them out of their playing field,” he said. “That was something that really just affirmed everything for me. Not only do they not change every time I go visit them, but they also don’t change when they come to visit me. They’re the same people no matter what or where they are.”
Caldwell will be making an in-home visit to see Sadler on Wednesday, Dec. 8. Nearly a week later, Sadler will be putting pen to paper and officially signing with the Tigers.
Before he arrives at Clemson as an early enrollee, Sadler will be participating in the 2022 Under Armour All-American Game at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, FL on Sunday, Jan. 2, 2022.
“I’m really excited,” he said. “I’m excited to go again, go against some national competition like I did in the five-star camp. That’s where I’m happy when I’m going against the best in the country. It’s been a dream that I’ve had since I was really little. I always wanted to be an All-American. It’s just a childhood dream come true.”
Sadler didn’t accomplish everything he wanted to do during his senior campaign. Greenville High School’s season came up just four days short of the team’s end goal.
“The fact that we were that close and came up that short, that’ll stay with me for a long time,” he said.
Though, Sadler met some goals he set for himself, like winning the Region Player of the Year, earning All-Region and All-American accolades and last but certainly not least, going to college at Clemson.
Turn back the page to Sadler’s freshman season at Greenville. If someone were to tell him that he would accomplish all these accolades throughout his high school career and on his way to Clemson, would he have believed them?
“I would be hopeful, but I’m not sure I would quite believe them, to be honest with you,” Sadler said.
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