CJ Spiller – Page 2 – Syndication Server

Clemson is ‘pretty high up’ in newly offered RB’s recruitment

While Clemson has been recruiting this class of 2023 running back target for some time now, the Tigers officially cemented themselves in Montgomery (Ala.) Catholic four-star Jeremiah Cobb’s recruitment. Cobb – a 5-foot-11, 185-pound rising senior – …

Cobb — a 5-foot-11, 185-pound rising senior — became one of the latest recipients of a Clemson offer on Thursday, May 12.

He had a reasonable expectation that an offer would be coming soon. Clemson kept watching his film and found out more and more about Cobb as a person. He was a natural fit and someone who checks all their boxes.

“Clemson came to practice last week,” Cobb told The Clemson Insider Tuesday. “Coach (Brandon) Streeter and Coach (CJ) Spiller came out to practice last week and later that night, they called me to tell me that I had an offer. I was pretty excited.”

Cobb said that he’s always been appreciative of the way that Clemson has done things. He visited back in February and while he wasn’t offered then, Spiller had reinforced building a relationship, which helped lead to last week’s scholarship offer.

“I think it’s kind of cool because Coach Spiller really just wanted to build a relationship, get to know each other more, get to know more about me and my past and stuff like that,” he said.

Cobb talks with Clemson’s running backs coach pretty regularly and tries to do so as often as he can. He’ll have the chance to chop it up with Spiller again in person when he visits for Clemson’s official visit weekend from June 3-5.

“I really want to get to see more of the campus, get the feel of the place, get to meet more of the staff and get close with them,” Cobb said.

Clemson isn’t the only official visit that Cobb has locked in. He’ll also be officially visiting the University of Tennessee towards the end of next month. As far as a timetable on an eventual decision goes, Cobb will take his official visits and go from there. However, he did indicate that he would like to make a decision prior to his senior season.

In addition to the programs mentioned above, Cobb also said that Auburn and North Carolina are among the schools currently recruiting him the hardest.

When it comes time for him to make his college decision, Cobb said his relationship with the staff, and whether a place feels like home will factor into which school he pledges his commitment to.

With that being said, where does Clemson currently stand in Cobb’s recruitment?

“They’re pretty high up over most of these schools,” he said. “It’s a really great program filled with great people.”

– Photo for this article courtesy of @jeremiahcobb23 on Instagram

Congratulations! You did it! You graduated! Now is the time to preserve your diploma in a custom frame. Here at Clemson Variety & Frame, we build all our frames in-house – from the frame to the mats and etchings to the installation – to guarantee the quality. You worked hard for your degree. Trust us to show your diploma in the best light possible.

Clemson showing interest in new RB target

After speaking with a Sunshine State product, The Clemson Insider has identified a new running back target for Clemson in the 2023 recruiting class. Clemson running backs coach CJ Spiller first got in touch with Christopher Johnson, Jr. a couple of …

After speaking with a Sunshine State product, The Clemson Insider has identified a new running back target for Clemson in the 2023 recruiting class.

Clemson running backs coach CJ Spiller first got in touch with Christopher Johnson, Jr. a couple of weeks ago. The big-time running back prospect out of Florida’s Dillard High School — a former Rutgers University commit, who recently reopened his recruitment — has been in constant contact with Spiller.

They talk to each other just about every day and have been going back-and-forth about the Grizzlies-Warriors series in the second round of the NBA playoffs. They chatted with each other this morning about Memphis’ 134-95 victory over Golden State Wednesday night.

“I’ve been talking to Coach Spiller for like this past week,” Johnson said. “We’ve just been bonding and getting to know each other. We talk about a lot of things outside of football, it’s not just about football with him. He asks me about personal things, like my family and things like that.”

“That’s big because he played in the league,” Johnson said when asked about potentially playing for a College Football Hall of Famer. “I know that if I go to Clemson, I could learn a lot of things and he could teach me certain things that I would’ve never learned. So, that’s big for me.”

According to Johnson, Spiller will be coming down to Dillard to watch his spring game next week. Johnson is confident that he’ll be able to earn an offer from the Tigers once Spiller is able to see what he can do.

“That would be a big piece for my recruitment,” he said regarding a potential Clemson offer.

While the two haven’t talked about Johnson coming up to Clemson for a visit, he imagines that conversation will be had after Spiller sees him in action. Johnson knows that he’s going to visit Clemson this summer, but there’s not a set date at the moment.

Johnson was committed to Rutgers for about a month. He wanted to open things back up as he evaluated his options going forward. In addition to Clemson, Johnson mentions schools like Georgia, Oregon, Tennessee, West Virginia and Louisville as the schools currently recruiting him the hardest.

Right now, Johnson is in the process of taking his visits this summer and made sure to tell us that he plans on making Clemson one of his official visits. He plans on making two official visits during the summer and likely the rest during the season.

In all likelihood, Johnson will commit after the end of his senior season.

With that being said, what are going to be some of the more important factors that he sifts through when it’s time to make that decision?

“I’m gonna be looking for a school where I can see the field early and where I’m gonna play at,” Johnson said. “Just good chemistry with my position coach. I need a home, like a home where I fit now, I need a home where I can produce.”

Talking about Johnson and his game, he describes himself as a self-motivated running back, who has a unique blend of speed and change of direction.

“I just feel like I’m one of a kind,” he said. “There’s not too many people that can do what I do.”

In-state RB recaps latest Clemson visit: ‘They treated me like family’

Dutch Fork’s (Irmo, S.C.) Jarvis Green is an in-state prospect that’s been on Clemson’s radar for quite some time now, as the junior running back made his way to campus for the program’s second junior day of the year on Saturday, March 5. The …

The Clemson Insider recently caught up with Green, who the Tigers continue to monitor and show extensive interest in. He’s very reasonably become a viable option for a Clemson team that’s only handed out offers to three running backs — Justice Haynes, Richard Young and Cedric Baxter — in the 2023 recruiting class.

“The visit was pretty good,” Green said. “They treated me like family. Coach (C.J.) Spiller always treats me like family every time I go up there. I got to talk to Coach (Brandon) Streeter a little bit and Coach Dabo a little bit.”

What did Green hear from the coaching staff while he was on campus?

“Just what they always say,” he said. “Just be patient, trust in God and have a good year next year. (Coach Spiller) said to always come up here so we can build a relationship.”

Green had a chance to see Spiller in action as he was a spectator for one of Clemson’s first practices of the spring.

“I really liked it because it really reminded me of my school,” Green said. “Our coaches are really patient with us and if you don’t understand something, they’ll take the time and just teach you it and then go on from there.

“It was like real because the coaches always say on the phone that there’s nothing that they’ll sugar-coat and they really don’t yell that much in practice. When I went there to go watch, they didn’t really yell. All the teammates were altogether bonding and they were laughing and joking around. It was just like a family bond there. They made it seem like they’re a real family.”

Green saw that again as he sat in and watched some film with Clemson’s running backs room. While sophomore running back Phil Mafah has been the lead guy this spring due to Will Shipley and Kobe Pace being sidelined with injuries, Green said he could sense a family-type bond in the room, as they bounced questions and answers off one another and Spiller.

Clemson’s running backs coach plans on coming down to Dutch Fork sometime this spring just to check out Green and see how he’s doing. The Silver Foxes are set to check off their spring season in around three weeks or so.

As far as his recruitment is concerned, Green has started to reel in more offers since the beginning of last month. Since March 2, he’s added offers from East Tennessee State, UMass, Miami (Ohio), Gardner Webb and Fordham.

It’s only a matter of time before Power Five schools jump into his recruitment. In addition to Clemson, he’s been hearing from Arizona, Wake Forest and TCU, as well as App State and Liberty.

“It’s starting to hit me a little bit, but my parents tell me just to take it day by day,” Green said, “and just to cherish the moments while they’re here.”

Green indicated that an offer was not discussed this time around. Though, Green will be back for Clemson’s spring game on Saturday, April 9, and will likely be back to participate in the Dabo Swinney Camp this summer.

Time to get the latest Clemson apparel to show your Tiger pride. Order your officially licensed Clemson gear right here!

Clemson expressing interest in elite Alabama RB with connection to Tigers

Clemson has recently started to express interest in the high school teammate of two future Tigers in Kylon Griffin and TJ Dudley. Montgomery (Ala.) Catholic four-star Jeremiah Cobb has received interest from the Tigers and went into depth about what …

Clemson has recently started to express interest in the high school teammate of two future Tigers in Kylon Griffin and TJ Dudley.

Montgomery (Ala.) Catholic four-star Jeremiah Cobb has received interest from the Tigers and went into depth about what he’s been hearing from Clemson and if he plans to visit soon.

“I got to talk to the running back a little bit,” Cobb told The Clemson Insider. “He told me that he liked my film and stuff like that. I haven’t really been in touch with them lately, though.”

When we spoke with Cobb, he acknowledged that multiple members of Clemson’s staff — C.J. Spiller, Brandon Streeter and Lemanski Hall — all followed him on Twitter as of late. So, he feels like it’s a great sign of things to come.

Cobb — a 5-11, 180-pound junior — texted with Spiller last week and they got on the phone for a little bit.

“We just talked about how things were going with each other and we talked about my track practice and stuff like that,” he said. “We’ve just been texting a little bit. It’s really cool to be able to sit down and talk to (Coach Spiller) like that.”

Griffin and Dudley both signed with Clemson at the beginning of the month. Cobb grew up playing with both of the future Tigers, so he indicated that he’s really close with each of them. With that being said, what have they told Cobb about Clemson?

“They told me that they love and it’s a great place to be around,” Cobb said. “They just love the family feel of it and how it’s just a great, comfortable place to be at.”

As far as his recruitment is concerned, Cobb hasn’t sat down and thought through his options just yet. He’s aiming to take a couple of visits this spring, which will likely put things into further perspective. Cobb is planning to visit the University of Tennessee on March 5, he’ll also be visiting Auburn on March 19 and UCF on March 26. He also visited UNC in January.

Right now, Cobb is looking to visit Clemson on March 11.

“I’m looking forward to getting up there and meeting everybody in person,” he said.

This past season, he rushed for over 2,000 yards and totaled over 500 receiving yards. Once prospective college teams were able to get ahold of his film, that’s when the offers came rushing in. Cobb is as humble as they come, so he views the offers as a testament to all the hard work he’s put in and the blocking he’s received upfront.

As for Cobb and his game, he’s very versatile out of the backfield, has really good receiving skills and feels like he can do things that other running backs can’t. Cobb has exceptional vision and hits holes hard. Once he gets in the open field, he’s very adept at making people miss.

Cobb, a consensus four-star prospect, is considered by 247Sports to be the nation’s No. 19 running back and the No. 295 prospect in the nation for the class of 2023.

–Photo for this article courtesy of @jeremiahcobb23 on Instagram

Time to get the latest Clemson apparel to show your Tiger pride. Order your officially licensed Clemson gear right here!

Eason’s hire adds to coaching staff’s next-level experience

The latest addition to Clemson’s football coaching staff is expected to become official Friday morning. And when it does, Dabo Swinney will have another assistant that’s experienced the level of the sport that many of the Tigers’ current and …

The latest addition to Clemson’s football coaching staff is expected to become official Friday morning.

And when it does, Dabo Swinney will have another assistant that’s experienced the level of the sport that many of the Tigers’ current and prospective players aspire to reach.

Nick Eason is set to join the Tigers’ staff as the replacement for Todd Bates, who coached Clemson’s defensive tackles for half a decade before recently leaving to join Brent Venables’ staff at Oklahoma. Eason will be the fifth former Tiger on staff, but perhaps more importantly from a recruiting perspective, he will be the seventh assistant coach that’s either played or coached in the NFL.

In Eason’s case, he’s done both.

After finishing an all-ACC senior season at Clemson in 2002, Eason was taken in the fourth round of the 2003 NFL Draft by the Denver Broncos. He’ll be the fourth assistant that was drafted into the NFL, joining running backs coach and former Clemson standout C.J. Spiller (2010, first round), cornerbacks coach and special teams coordinator Mike Reed (1995, seventh round out of Boston College) and defensive ends coach Lemanski Hall (1994, seventh round out of Alabama).

Receivers coach Tyler Grisham and newly promoted offensive line coach Thomas Austin had brief stints in the NFL after signing as undrafted free agents in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

Eason had a longer playing career than any of them, spending a decade with four NFL teams. The last nine were spent with the Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals. As part of the Steelers’ defensive line rotation from 2007-10, he played in two Super Bowls and was a member of Pittsburgh’s most recent Super Bowl-winning team in 2008.

After calling it quits as a player in 2012, Eason began his coaching career as an intern with the Browns and quickly worked his way up the ladder. He was hired as an assistant defensive line coach by the Tennessee Titans in 2014 before becoming the team’s primary defensive line coach two years later.

In 2019, the Cincinnati Bengals hired him as their defensive line coach. Eason has had pit stops in the college ranks at Austin Peay (2018) and Auburn (2021) before now, but seven of his nine seasons coaching have been spent in the NFL.

Throw in Reed (Philadelphia Eagles’ defensive backs and special teams coach from 2002-06), Hall (internship with the Titans) and Goodwin (Cardinals’ assistant to the head coach from 2015-17), and Clemson’s staff boasts more than five decades of combined experience playing and coaching at the next level. Between Eason and Hall, who played nine NFL seasons with the Houston/Tennessee Oilers, Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys and Minnesota Vikings, Clemson’s defensive line will have 26 years worth of NFL experience coaching it up.

Eason isn’t exactly inheriting a bare cupboard at his position. Clemson is in line to return every significant contributor on the interior of the defensive line, including starters Tyler Davis and Bryan Bresee, who could be a first-round draft pick next year.

But the credentials also figure to be a major selling point on the recruiting trail for Eason, who, in less than a calendar year on Auburn’s staff, helped the Tigers land three impact transfers along the defensive line. He was also a factor in Auburn signing the nation’s top overall junior college prospect in the current recruiting cycle, defensive tackle Jeffrey M’ba.

Now Eason will be selling his alma mater. And he knows as well as anybody on Swinney’s staff how to forge path from Clemson to the sport’s highest level.

Clemson Variety & Frame is doing their part to help bring you some classic new barware and help one of the local businesses that helps make Clemson special.

Order your Nick’s barware and do your part to help. #SaveNicks