If you follow Clemson football recruiting closely, you’re likely privy to just how big of a target Oceanside Collegiate Academy’s Monroe Freeling is for Clemson’s 2023 recruiting class.
Literally and figuratively.
Freeling — a 6-foot-7, 290-pound four-star offensive lineman — recently tapped into his recruitment after quietly shutting things down during finals week.
Speaking with The Clemson Insider last Thursday, Freeling confirmed that he’s currently focused on his top seven schools: Clemson, Florida, Georgia, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Michigan.
While Clemson’s official visit weekend is set to take place later this week, Freeling won’t be among the attendees. That doesn’t mean that Clemson isn’t still recruiting Freeling like he’s a priority, rather, it just so happens that this weekend is his parents’ wedding anniversary.
Freeling has scheduled two official visits this summer to Notre Dame and Miami, both of which will take place sometime this month. While Freeling won’t be at Clemson this weekend, he didn’t rule out making an unofficial visit to Tiger Town sometime this summer.
“I’ve also been up there so many times, it also just felt like I really could just do an in-season official visit,” he said. “It’d feel like it’d make a lot more sense, but it’s still undecided.”
Freeling all but guaranteed that he would eventually make Clemson one of his five official visits. What it really comes down to for him and his family, is being able to get everyone up to Clemson at the same time.
Most of the schools that Freeling has been talking to have had a lot of changes on their staff. There’s not an exact timetable for a decision, but there’s a chance that Freeling would like to see how things progress under a new assistant coach.
Take Clemson’s offensive line, Thomas Austin, for example.
“It’s kind of been a steady relationship,” Freeling said. “I was talking a lot more to Coach Austin from the jump than I was talking to Coach (Robbie) Caldwell. I think that definitely helped…the relationship’s still there, I think it’s just a matter of seeing Coach Austin — I might go up to a camp or something and try to see more of what his coaching’s like. That’s all I can really say.”
