A fast-rising linebacker, who hails from Minnesota’s Robbinsdale Cooper High, participated in the Dabo Swinney Camp back on June 2.
Emmanuel Karmo — a 6-foot-3, 205-pound junior linebacker in the class of 2025 — spoke to The Clemson Insider last month regarding his time at Clemson earlier this summer and was left impressed with what Dabo Swinney and the Tigers had to offer.
It actually went great,” Karmo said “When I first got there, it was all good vibes — they was cracking jokes. The linebacker coach, it was like he was an older brother to me. He was just cool. And I really liked the facility too.”
“As soon as I walked in, I was like ‘Man, this is a nice facility,’” he recalled. “They had all the trophies. It was just like ‘Wow’; one of the best facilities I’ve ever been to in my life.”
Karmo got a good feel for Wesley Goodwin, who placed him in the top group with some upperclassmen, once he arrived for the one-day session of Swinney Camp. He admitted that he could’ve done better, but felt happy about the effort he put forth in Tiger Town.
In addition to Clemson, Karmo camped at the Mercer Mega Camp (twice), Georgia State Mega Camp, the Baller’s Choice Camp, Auburn and the University of Minnesota, among several others. Karmo, who is a native of the North Star State, returned to Minneapolis at the end of July.
“That was good, actually,” Karmo said. “When I first got my first offers, I texted my whole family — that was special. I feel like these camps made me way better than I thought I could be. I thought I was good. I thought I needed to get my name out there. I thought Minnesota was slept on. When I got out of Minnesota (this summer) and started doing drills (at camps) and stuff, I thought that made me way better and changed my way of play.”
Prior to camping at Clemson on June 2, Karmo picked up an offer from Southern Illinois. Two days later, ECU presented him with his second scholarship offer.
“It showed that we got good players here and that just really made me happy,” he said.
Good players like Jaxon Howard.
The top-100 national recruit and one of the nation’s top edge rushers picked up an offer from Clemson in January of this year from Kyle Richardson, but never gained much traction with the Tigers. Howard, the top-ranked prospect in the state of Minnesota in the class of 2023, elected to commit to Brian Kelly and LSU back on July 1.
Karmo is teammates with Howard and both prospects are two-way players for Robbinsdale Cooper. Back in mid-July, Karmo said that he’s very excited for the upcoming season because there are some people who have the impression that his high school team might not be as good because they lost all their seniors.
Karmo will be among the players who step up for Robbinsdale Cooper, which starts its season on Friday, Sept. 2.
“I think I’m very fast for my age,” Karmo said when asked to describe himself as a player. “I run a 4.6 (40-yard dash) as a freshman, so when I get older, I know I’m gonna be way faster…I don’t think that’s normal for a linebacker. I think I’m gonna be real good and I think I’m faster than most linebackers.”
Karmo plays both outside linebacker and middle linebacker, but he’ll be starting at the MIKE-backer position, as well as at wide receiver.
— Photo for this article courtesy of Emmanuel Karmo.