The Clemson Insider caught up with a teammate of a priority target, who has recently emerged on Clemson’s radar and made his first trip to Tiger Town this past weekend.
Reagan High School (Pfafftown, N.C.) three-star defensive end Semaj Turner — a 6-foot-3, 240-pound junior in the class of 2023 – was on campus at Clemson for an unofficial visit Saturday, March 12.
“The visit went really well,” Turner said. “As soon as I stepped on campus, it was automatic love. Everything felt very genuine. Clemson, I’d say right now, did a very good job of making me feel the loving environment of the Clemson family. It was just a very good visit.”
What did Turner hear from the coaching staff while he was on campus?
“I had really good conversations with Coach (Lemanski Hall) the defensive ends coach, Coach (Nick) Eason and Coach (DeAndre) McDaniel,” he said. “Clemson’s really big on relationships and we’re looking forward to building our relationship and I plan on coming back later in the spring. We’re just gonna keep building our relationship and whatever happens, happens.”
On the subject of a potential offer, Clemson told Turner that they want to focus on building a relationship with him because it’s still early in his process with the Clemson family.
“It could be possible in the future,” Turner said, “but they really just want to get to know me and I want to get to know them as well and keep building our relationships. That was the main thing.
“I’m very appreciative about that. I respect that. That’s a good thing because they don’t give out a whole lot of offers anyway. I think it’s really important for me and for them to keep building our relationship and keep the genuineness of it all. Possibly an offer could be in the future, but the main thing was just them telling me about building a relationship.”
It would mean a lot for Turner to get an offer from Clemson, he said. He loves the Clemson family and he certainly enjoyed his time on campus.
A Clemson offer would certainly help his recruitment take shape, but Turner understands that he still has a lot more visits to go on and a lot more to see. He’s just looking forward to it all.
What stood out to Turner on his Clemson visit?
“Just the love, the genuineness from the staff to all the coaches,” he said. “Everything they did was just very genuine. I really felt the love from the Clemson family while the time I was there. Everything felt very family-like.”
Turner is a big fan of the way Hall coaches his guys. He loves his passion and how much he cares about his players. Turner feels like Hall does a great job of helping his position group break down the drills and from what he could tell, all the defensive ends looked very precise.
“Seeing guys like K.J. Henry and Myles Muprhy work in person, it was good,” Turner said. “Getting a good feel for that coaching environment and a good feel for practice, it was everything that I thought it’d be and some more. It was really good to see that, get to experience that and be there first-hand and in person. I liked everything I saw.”
Turner figures he’ll be back for Clemson’s spring game on April 9.
“I’m most definitely looking forward to being back on campus,” he said. “Like I said, it goes back to building our relationship. I look forward to being back there and continuing to build this thing.”
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