College football has a foreverchanging landscape with one common denominator: Teams that land higher-rated recruits tend to have more success.
Since 2010, only teams with above 50 percent of four or five-star signees on their roster, excluding walkons, have been able to win national championships. This calculation is known as the blue-chip ratio.
Clemson will have a 63 percent blue-chip ratio heading into the 2022 season, putting them at eighth in the country behind a slew of historic programs, including Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, Oklahoma and Texas.
A significant portion of Clemson’s blue-chip ratio this season comes from its 2022 signing class, which was No. 10 in the country according to 247Sports Composite rankings.
Among others, five-star quarterback Cade Klubnik and five-star cornerback Jeadyn Lukus highlight the Tigers’ freshmen class, which includes 10 four or five-star signees.
While Clemson’s 2022 was among the best in the country, head coach Dabo Swinney is on pace to land more blue-chips in the Tigers’ 2023 recruiting class.
Clemson has verbal commitments from 17 blue-chip prospects so far, including five-star quarterback Christopher Vizzina and five-star defensive lineman Peter Woods.
Most recently, Clemson landed four-star athlete Ronan Hanafin on Sunday, who will likely line up at wide receiver for the Tigers.
Clemson’s 2023 class is currently No. 8 in the country, according to 247Sports Composite rankings, slightly edging the Miami Hurricanes and right behind the Brent Venables-led Oklahoma Sooners.
Clemson won its two most recent titles with relatively low bluechip percentages at 52 percent in 2016 and 61 percent in 2018, according to 247Sports’ Bud Elliott. They are the two lowest rates of national championship teams in the College Football Playoff era.
Swinney has reiterated multiple times this offseason that recruiting rankings aren’t always accurate, as Clemson has never landed the No. 1 class in the nation in the Swinney era.
Still, Alabama and Clemson are the only two teams in the CFP era to win multiple national championships, and the blue-chip players are a massive reason why success has attached itself to those two programs.