This four-star Carolinas wideout has emerged as a priority wide receiver target for Clemson, ever since Tyler Grisham made him the second rising junior at his position to be offered in this cycle.
Jonathan Paylor — a 5-foot-9, 170-pound four-star rising junior out Hugh M. Cummings High School (Burlington, N.C.) — updated his current recruitment and where Clemson currently stands in the mix of things in a phone interview with The Clemson Insider Wednesday.
“Everything’s been going great,” Paylor said. “Everything’s starting to open up. I’m really starting to see what I want and what I need out of schools, so it’s really going good.”
Is there anything in particular that Paylor is looking for in a school at the next level?
“One thing for me is really academics,” he said. “What’s the graduating rate for their players? And really the comfort zone around the coaches, like can I talk to them about personal stuff?”
Speaking of relationships, Paylor went in-depth on his relationship with Tyler Grisham. Paylor said that things have been going great with Clemson’s wide receivers coach. He called him up a couple of days ago and they touched base on a multitude of topics.
“It’s really going great with him,” Paylor said, “and to know that he really cares about me off the field with how work’s been and how my mental health is and everything like that is great. He really wants me to succeed besides football — like what am I doing in the classroom to get better and things like that. But, when it’s time to talk about football, we get straight to it. He knows what he wants and I know what I want as a receiver and a running back also. For him to connect on that level with me two, besides football, that’s great.”
With Paylor being one of two receivers to be offered in this class — the other being Greensboro (N.C.) Grimsley High School’s four-star Alex Taylor — Grisham has made it quite apparent that he’s a priority for Clemson in the 2024 recruiting class.
“They made it damn clear that they need the type of player like me because they’re used to getting big, tall receivers,” Paylor said. “But, they need a short receiver like me, where I can really get out and explore and get special packages. They need the type of player like me and Alex, just to really get in space and make a play.”
Paylor spoke highly of Taylor, who he described as “his guy.” They’ve been talking regularly and have even touched on the topic of playing with each other at the next level. Paylor feels like their games definitely complement one another and he mentioned that the two have deep conversations about how they could be a dynamic receiver duo.
As Clemson’s wide receivers coach recruits both Tar Heel State receivers heavily, Paylor, who estimated that he speaks to Grisham around once or twice a week, expects that to ramp up once Sept. 1 rolls around.
In addition to Clemson and the University of Tennessee, which Paylor unofficially visited last weekend, he mentioned schools like UNC, N.C. State and South Carolina as the ones that he’s been in contact with the most up until this point in his process.
Paylor is looking to take game day visits this upcoming season to those five schools, as well as Georgia and West Virginia.
“Really everything,” Paylor said when asked what he’ll be looking for during these upcoming game day visits. “I’ll even be looking to see what’s the response from players after the play, to see if they get good coaching. Can they maintain their composure after a bad play? Or even down to like if they run a tempo offense, if they spread the ball a lot. Are the fans engaged with the players and everything? I’ll go really in detail into everything.”
Paylor currently ranks as the No. 4 athlete and the nation’s No. 18 overall prospect regardless of position in the 2024 class, per 247Sports.
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