Five-star Mike Matthews talks Clemson and updates his recruitment in video interview

Mike Matthews, a Five-star 2024 recruit and the nation's No. 6 overall player (247Sports composite), set official visits to Clemson, Georgia, Tennessee, and USC. Throughout recent months, his recruitment appeared to be a battle between Clemson and Georgia, but Tennessee has recently entered the mix as a strong contender.

Matthews gives his thoughts heading into Clemson’s official visit weekend (June 2-4):

Previewing the OV: “They don't really offer a lot of big-time players, but they show interest in me, and they show how they care about me as a family, and I just really find that interesting. So, of course I would take an OV to Clemson.”

Why Clemson stands out: “I talk to Dabo all the time. Just his mentality and how he handles things in the facilities that they run. They keep it real organized … It is really good to have an entire community out there, too, on top of that, but he's really building career-wise for the athletes, not just mainly for football, and I find that interesting.

He will be a receiver in college: “I established that after the football season, and I probably established that better around everybody that kept asking me. Growing up, I've always been just a wideout, and I've always felt more natural at it. For defense - my only way to get on the field on Friday nights was to play safety. I happened to be so good at it, and I started perfecting my craft. Now, I'm a good two-way player. So I got a good balance of both. But it was a tough decision.”

Clemson’s wide receiver tradition: “I grew up watching those guys. It's crazy. A lot of these schools produce a lot of big-time receivers, but Clemson, Bama, and Tennessee- they realized some real top dogs.”

His message to Clemson fans: “I love y'all. I love the community. I love the energy. I've been to a few games. It's a crazy atmosphere, and hopefully, I might be a Tiger.”

Notes on the other contenders:

Tennessee: The Georgia native told me that “Tennessee is in a good place” in his recruitment. They have surged this spring and made an impressive run at the five-star. Matthews has strong relationships with the coaching staff, who even made the effort to text him before his basketball games during the winter. Five-star 2023 quarterback Nico Iamaleava reached out to Matthews and has started a relationship between them. Matthews was in attendance for the Tennessee vs. Alabama game last fall and loves the environment in Knoxville. 

Georgia: Matthews has a strong history with Georgia, who offered him in May 2022. When we saw him earlier this spring, he was wearing Georgia gloves (one time doesn’t mean much, but it could be notable that he’s sported Georgia gear often over the past year). After the addition of No. 1 overall recruit Dylan Raiola‍, the Bulldogs are an enticing program for the top pass catcher. Even though they are the two-time defending national champions, our sources indicate the Bulldogs are not in the lead for Matthews at this point.

At this point, I believe he could commit to any of those three programs. There’s no clear leader for Matthews heading into his official visits. Even though he is taking an official visit to USC, I don’t consider them to be as much of a contender as the other three schools.

On3’s RPM projections give Clemson a slight advantage at this point (30.6%) over Georgia (23.4%) and Tennessee (17.3%). Clemson is undoubtedly a top contender and a program to watch as Matthews’ recruitment heads toward the final stretch this summer.