The Clemson Insider caught up with this standout Peach State receiver that’s on the Tigers’ recruiting radar.

Johns Creek (Ga.) High School’s Kyle Vaka – a 6-foot, 170-pound junior in the 2024 class – has been keeping in contact periodically with Clemson wide receivers coach Tyler Grisham.

“Me and Coach Grisham stay in touch from time to time. I think I texted with him last week,” Vaka told TCI recently. “I texted with him. I let him know I was watching – I think it was the NC State game – so, seeing those guys ball out, and I like to text him and let him know I’ve been watching their receivers and seeing them ball out, sending him some of my tape, and he appreciates it. He encourages me, and I appreciate staying in touch with him.”

Vaka has traveled to Tiger Town a bunch of times. He made his way to campus for a couple of games last season, went to this year’s spring game in April and participated in the Dabo Swinney Camp this past summer for the second year in a row – not to mention a couple of other trips he has made to visit his sister, who actually attends Clemson.

Most recently, Vaka made an unofficial visit to Clemson for the Louisiana Tech game on Sept. 17, and he is looking to return to campus multiple times in the offseason.

“Going to make it up for spring game hopefully,” he said. “Definitely going to be camping there, and I really look forward to my relationship with Clemson and Coach Grisham and how that grows.”

Along with Clemson, Vaka is getting interest from Vanderbilt, SMU, Rice and William & Mary. He visited Vanderbilt in September, went to Rice two weekends ago, SMU this past weekend and plans to see William & Mary and Vanderbilt again over the next couple of weekends.

“I’m just keeping in touch with those schools and putting my explosive plays on film and just controlling what I can control,” he said.

Vaka just wrapped up a strong junior campaign and finished it with a bang on Oct. 28, when he posted seven receptions for 218 yards and two touchdowns (75 and 80 yards).

Entering that game, Vaka had tallied 30 catches for 493 yards and three touchdowns on the season while logging 11 explosive plays of 20-plus yards.

Vaka, who also returned punts and kickoffs for his team this season, has been invited to the Georgia Elite Classic, the state’s premier All-Star game.

“The season as a team, it’s been a little bit of a struggle, losing a ton of seniors, a whole new coaching staff came in,” he said. “So, myself, I’m just trying to control what I can control. I’ve been grateful to put a ton of explosive plays on tape.”

Ideally, Vaka would like to have his recruitment wrapped up heading into his senior season next year, but he’s just playing things by ear as the recruiting process progresses.

Right now, his sights are simply set on working as hard as possible this offseason.

“I know I’m going to run track and train as hard as I can, put on muscle and weight and control what I can control in terms of how hard I work,” he said. “I know that God will take care of the rest and the offers and all that will come in due time, and I’m just going to put my head down and work.”

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This rising junior wide receiver from the Peach State on Clemson’s recruiting radar returned to campus earlier this summer to participate in Dabo Swinney’s high school football camp.

Johns Creek (Ga.) High School’s Kyle Vaka — a 6-foot, 170-pound prospect in the class of 2024 — competed during the second day of the Swinney Camp on June 2.

Since then, Vaka made multiple camp visits and has been working towards a crucial junior season that lies ahead. Speaking with The Clemson Insider via a phone interview Saturday, Vaka detailed his current progress and recapped an eventful summer on the camp circuit.

“Summer’s been great,” Vaka said. “I’ve been going to a ton of camps. I went to Vanderbilt, Furman, Kennesaw State, and Clemson, of course, and we also got summer workouts going on with our high school team. I’m focused on the season and how we can win games. And then also I’m training with my wide receiver trainer as well, so I got a lot going on football-wise. It’s been fun, but it’s been a grind.”

While we spoke with Vaka earlier this summer about his Swinney Camp experience, he went into further detail about his conversations with Tyler Grisham. Vaka said that Clemson’s wide receivers coach was very clear with him, which he appreciates.

“He said that he loved the way I competed and he loved the way that I worked with the top group of wide receivers,” Vaka said. “There was guys like (Clemson commit) Noble Johnson and Winston Watkins, so there were some big names in there. He loved the way I competed. He loved the way that I was coachable. He told me that this junior season is critical and what I can put on tape this junior season is gonna mean a lot.”

Vaka has been working for it and he’s ready for it.

Going back to his camp experience, when we messaged with Vaka following his participation in last month’s Swinney Camp, he told us that he didn’t start off the morning session quite like he wanted to, but he was able to turn up his game a notch that afternoon.

“I think when I got to the camp, there was a really talented group of guys there and I knew I’d fit in with those guys,” he said. “I think it just took me a minute to realize, ‘Hey, I’m where these guys are and I belong here.’ Once I realized that and I tapped into that confidence that I knew I had, things just took off.”

Once Vaka realized he belonged in the top group of wideouts, he started to feel a lot more comfortable. It didn’t take Vaka long to flip the switch. Football is supposed to be fun and once he let loose and competed with confidence, good things started to happen. To him, that’s what football is all about. When Vaka does his best and he plays his best, he’s always having fun.

That will be an important lesson for Vaka this upcoming season and that’s with his junior campaign being critical to his recruitment. He essentially got similar feedback from all of the schools he camped at this summer. They mostly all relayed to him that they’ll be keeping an eye on what he’s able to accomplish during his junior season.

“That’s been the message,” Vaka reiterated. “They like what they see, but it’s all about my junior tape and what I can put on film to confirm what they’ve seen in person.

Of course, things will become a lot easier for Vaka when college programs around the country are eligible to start directly contacting prospects like himself in the class of 2024 come Sept. 1.

Vaka has previously spoken highly of the Tigers in past conversations with TCI and is hopeful that with the relationship he’s been able to build with Grisham, Clemson will be among the programs that reach out to him at the beginning of September.

“I’m hopeful and I’m confident that my relationship with Clesmon and Coach Grisham will continue,” he said. “My mindset right now is just controlling what I can control and that’s how hard I work, that’s how much I put into my high school team and how we can win games and how I can help us win games. When all that’s said and done and when I control what I can control, it’s in God’s hands at that point. That’s all I can do.”

Vaka continued his praise for Clemson’s wide receivers coach.

“Coach Grisham’s a special coach because the biggest thing I noticed at Clemson’s camp is four-star Noble Johnson was there and Coach Grisham didn’t hesitate at all to coach him up,” Vaka said. “He was hard on him at times, but it just shows you that he’s not just there to be nice and try to recruit you to get there. He’s there to coach you and he’s there to get you better. He cares about everyone there.

“A lot of these coaches, some of them are very Hollywood and they have their guys. If you aren’t one of their guys, then they might not talk to you. No, Coach Grisham, he knows everyone in the group, he coaches everyone up in the group and he’s willing to talk to everyone about football and life. He’s just a good guy and a genuine guy.”

That’s also why Clesmon has become one of Vaka’s favorite camps to attend over the years.

“Clemson’s camp has always been my favorite, even when I went there last year and I didn’t have any connections there,” Vaka said, “because Clemson’s camp is all about just playing football and competing. It’s not a whole combine…you’re just simply going out there and playing football and at the end of the day, that’s what it comes down to. ‘Hey, maybe you can run faster than me, maybe you can jump farther, but can you beat me on this rep? I don’t know about that.’ That’s really what Clemson’s all about is just playing football at their camp and that’s what I love about it.”

— Photo by Dawson Powers / The Clemson Insider.

Last weekend, Clemson played host to some under-the-radar prospects, like Johns Creek (Ga.) 2024 wide receiver Kyle Vaka, who made his way to Tiger Town for the Orange & White Spring Game last Saturday.

“I mean it was awesome,” Vaka told The Clemson Insider. “Clemson’s definitely a special place. It was really great to meet the people and the coaches, they were really engaging. Great hospitality. The current players are the real deal. Watching the warmups and just the game itself, they’re well-coached. And, of course, the facilities are top-notch. They’re the best facilities in the country that I’ve seen, in my opinion. It was a really great visit.”

Vaka had been on campus prior to last Saturday’s visit. His sister is a freshman at Clemson, so he’s already been up to visit a couple of times. He also participated in the Dabo Swinney Camp last summer. 

That, along with following Tyler Grisham on Twitter, helped get Vaka on Clemson wide receivers coach’s radar.

“I got to spend a lot of time with Coach Grisham and (Offensive Player Development) Coach Kaleb Nobles,” Vaka said. “I talked with Coach Grisham at breakfast. I love that he played at Clemson and I really enjoyed our conversation. I spent a lot of my time with Coach Nobles, he’s an offensive assistant there with the QBs and the wide receivers. He took us on a tour of the facilities. I met Coach Tajh Boyd, Coach (Nick) Eason, Coach (Wesley) Goodwin, so it was really great.”

What was Vaka able to hear from Grisham?

“He was just telling me all about what they’re about,” Vaka said. “He was telling me a lot about the facilities and what Clemson has to offer. Of course, Clemson is wide receiver U, so we were talking about those guys. He was just a really, really genuine guy. He was talking to my family, just about life. He’s just a genuine guy.”

While Clemson’s spring game was far from an offensive affair, Vaka was a fan of what he saw, from a Brandon Streeter-led offense, especially concept-wise.

“I definitely liked what I saw out of the offense and what Coach Streeter has going on with the offense,” he said. “I really liked a lot of the RPOs (run-pass option) that they were running. We do that a lot in my high school offense. Those timing routes are big for those short gains, which can move the chains pretty quickly.”

While is truly the start of the recruitment process for Vaka, Clemson is super high on Vaka’s personal list. He attended a practice at the University of South Carolina this past week and was also invited to attend Vanderbilt’s spring game this past weekend. 

He expects this spring to bring more visibility to his game and obviously, this upcoming junior season will be critical for him and his team. In the meantime, Vaka is looking forward to getting to camps this summer. He’ll camp at Clemson, South Carolina, Furman, Vanderbilt, App State and a few more, just to get his name out there even more.

“This summer is definitely going to be big in terms of camps and talking to more and more coaches as I can,” he said. “I’m training a lot right now just to get to that point. This is probably the hardest I’ve worked ever, on this offseason. I’m doing wide receiver skill with Terrence Edwards, he’s the all-time leading receiver at Georgia. I’m doing speed agility with Drew Johnson, who trains a lot of NFL guys…a lot of things I’m working for to be able to perform at a really high level this spring and this summer to get my recruiting going.”

As for Vaka’s sophomore season, it went really well. He was one of three sophomores starting on a senior-laden team, which had one of its best seasons in school history.

When asked to describe himself as a player, Vaka made sure he didn’t leave out many details.

“There have been a few publications and analysts who have commented recently and I think they got it right,” Vaka said. “I’m a ‘get-open guy.’ I’m in the right spot where the quarterback wants me to be. I’m in the right spot when he looks to throw it. I’m where he wants me to be in the progression. I’m explosive off the snap. I like to make quick cuts. I pride myself on being an elite route runner. For me, that’s the biggest part of my game. How can I create separation? And, that’s elite route running. Almost everything I do, I want to be an elite route runner and create as much separation as possible.”

— Photo for this article courtesy of Kyle Vaka

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