Christopher Vizzina was home for the weekend.
The Clemson Insider caught up with Clemson’s five-star quarterback commit out of Alabama’s Briarwood Christian School on Monday. Vizzina detailed his one and only official visit in an exclusive interview with TCI.
“I knew it was going to be a fun weekend going in, but we were all blown away about how much fun we had and just the experience it was,” Vizzina said. “I think we really opened a lot of people’s eyes. The certain things that Coach Swinney says, he always has those long speeches, but he really elaborates on everything. Walking out, of course, I know what he’s all about, but the people that haven’t been there that many times walked away knowing what he really believes and everything.”
Vizzina is in agreement with St. Francis (Alpharetta, Ga.) four-star cornerback commit Branden Strozier, who told us Sunday that he believes the 2023 class is “about to heat up.”
“Absolutely,” he replied. “Like I said, I think this opened a lot of people’s eyes. I think after this weekend we should add some guys.”
Clemson has since added two class of 2023 commits in Westlake (Atlanta, Ga.) four-star cornerback Avieon Terrell and Vandegrift High School (Austin, Texas) four-star tackle Ian Reed.
“I’ve know that (Avieon Terrell) was going to do that for a while, but it’s like Branden said, it’s kind of heating up and everything,” Vizzina said. “I think this official visit really made it a big deal to a lot of the guys. I think some of them might start thinking really hard about it. We should be adding some guys.”
Vizzina got a chance to put on his recruiting cap this past weekend and really recruit some guys in person. A lot of that groundwork has happened through texting and over social media and whatnot, but this past weekend’s official visit allowed for him to do more of that and then some in person.
“That was one of my favorite things,” Vizzina said. “All the guys there were guys I’ve been texting throughout the past two months after I committed. Just getting to know them on text was cool, but to really hang out with these guys and get to know them off the field, that was one of the best things.”
Vizzina views himself as the leader of this class and so does Clemson’s staff.
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney brought Vizzina into his office on Friday.
“He sat me down and told me everyone that’s here, what they look like, where they’re from, what position, how many spots we have for that position and the people that he thought were really close,” Vizzina said. “I know that he thinks of me as the leader of the class and he knows I’m gonna give my best effort to get everybody we need.”
What does that mean to Vizzina?
“Me and him talk all the time about just all the recruiting things,” Vizzina continued. “Like I said, we talked about who is close and everything and so, I think he trusts me to really get on some guys, but really recruit them while we were hanging out. That’s what I’ve wanted to do. When I committed, I told everybody that I wanted to be the leader of the class.”
Vizzina informed us that a group chat was created for the 31 official visitors at the start of the weekend and everyone was pretty active in it, which he said made it that much more fun when they all got to meet each other in person.
“A lot of guys don’t know where they’re going yet, but they still walked away knowing what it’s like at Clemson and how real it is,” he said. “That group chat at the very beginning just set the tone for the whole visit.”
Vizzina is confident that Clemson should be adding some guys after this weekend.
So far, that looks to be the case.
— Photo for this article courtesy of Christopher Vizzina.
