One of the nation’s top edge rushers, Caleb Herring, had heard a lot of great things about Clemson heading into his visit there last month.
After experiencing the environment and spending time with the football program’s coaching staff, the four-star defensive end/outside linebacker and top-ranked player in the state of Tennessee for the 2023 class certainly didn’t leave campus disappointed by the visit.
“Something I was looking for going into the visit was if the coaches and the environment was as good as advertised, and it turns out I wasn’t disappointed at all,” Herring told The Clemson Insider. “I was comfortable as soon as I got to the school, and the coaches played a huge part in it.”
Herring, a rising junior from Riverdale High School in Murfreesboro, Tenn., felt right at home while hanging out with defensive ends coach Lemanski Hall and the Tigers’ staff.
“I talked to Coach Hall, and after I met with him, he introduced me to the defensive coaching staff,” Herring said. “I was really impressed with them, they made me feel like family.”
The message that Hall and Clemson’s staff conveyed to Herring during the visit resonated with him.
“They were telling me how it’s always family first when it comes to Clemson football,” he said. “They were saying that football is important, but family is more important, and that if anything were to happen, they’d always be there for the players, and that caught my eye.”
Herring is ranked as the No. 1 prospect in the Volunteer State, No. 4 edge defender and No. 61 overall prospect in the 2023 class by 247Sports. The 6-foot-6, 210-pounder has racked up more than a dozen scholarship offers, with his list featuring schools such as Tennessee, Michigan State, Michigan, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Kentucky, Arkansas, Baylor, Louisville and Virginia.
Although Herring doesn’t yet have an offer from Clemson, he has been staying in touch and building a good relationship with Hall, and Herring understands how the Tigers handle the recruiting process and that he has to bide his time for a potential opportunity to play for them.
“When I would call Coach Hall, he’d sometimes start the convo off saying that he’s not offering or anything yet, but if Clemson were to offer me, it would be big for me,” Herring said. “I’m being patient and waiting. I hope they offer soon cause I honestly like them a lot.”
Clemson, Tennessee and Michigan State, Herring added, are the schools sticking out to him the most at this point in his recruiting process. Herring’s older brother, Elijah, is committed to Tennessee as part of its 2022 class, and Caleb feels the Vols have been recruiting him hard too.
Caleb said he definitely intends to return to Clemson for another visit at some point down the road, possibly for a game this season. He and his mother are tentatively planning to go to Michigan State for its cookout on July 31, though that visit isn’t set in stone. Along with Clemson, Caleb made an unofficial visit to Vanderbilt in June, while he camped at Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee last month.
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