si
With a majority of Clemson's targets already committed, only a few remain undecided, and one of the last ones the Tigers are in contention for has finally made his decision.
On Friday evening, offensive lineman Nate Carson took to the CBS Sports College Football YouTube channel to announce his commitment to the South Carolina Gamecocks.
He chose the program over Clemson, Georgia and Colorado, which joined the sweepstakes late.
Carson is rated a consensus four-star prospect and ranks as the No.
184 overall player, the No.
24 player at his position and the No.
6 recruit in the state of South Carolina, according to the 247Sports Composite.
Clemson has been battling South Carolina for Carson for well over a year now, with each program hosting him for six visits since 2024.
The Gamecocks were his first Division I offer, extending a scholarship in September 2024 following an unofficial visit.
Multiple schools followed suit in the coming months, including Florida State, Virginia Tech, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, Ohio State and Missouri.
Throughout the spring, he took trips to Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, South Carolina and Tennessee before returning to both in-state schools during the summer.
While he had a dominant junior campaign anchoring an offensive line that averaged nearly 400 yards per game and helping the Yellow Jackets to a 12-2 record and a state runner-up finish he also stayed busy taking visits throughout the fall, with his offer list only growing.
Some of the notable offers he gained were Nebraska, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Auburn, Duke and NC State.
From August to December, he took unofficial visits to Clemson, Alabama, Nebraska and South Carolina (twice).
This past spring, he continued his spree of visits, starting with the Tigers' annual Elite Retreat in March before heading to Georgia Tech and South Carolina.
He then returned to Tigertown later that month before making his first unofficial visit to Georgia in Athens.
Texas A&M entered the picture next, offering after a successful visit in early April.
Soon after he visited College Station, Texas, Carson dropped his top five schools, which included Clemson, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas A&M.
He scheduled official visits with the Tigers (May 29-31), Aggies (June 5-7), Volunteers (June 12-14) and Gamecocks (June 19-21).
However, he later swapped out the Aggies official visit for one with Georgia.
Then, another school swooped in late, with Colorado offering in the final days of May, and impressed Carson enough to swap the Volunteers' official visit for one with the Buffaloes.
While there were positives reported from all four trips, all signs pointed to the Gamecocks successfully closing out his recruitment and landing the four-star talent as his commitment loomed.
With it now official, he is the third blue-chip prospect that South Carolina has added in the past three days, joining five-star cornerback Joshua Dobson and four-star safety Davion Jones, both of whom are former Clemson targets.
Luckily, the Tigers have already filled out their 2027 offensive line class, as they added four-stars Carter Jones, JJ Brown, Luke Starcevic and Elijah Morrison since the end of May.
Angelo Feliberty is a Sports Communication major who got his start with The Tiger newspaper at Clemson University starting as a contributor and working his way up to senior reporter covering multiple sports for the Clemson Tigers.
A native of Myrtle Beach, S.C., Feliberty was a three-year letterman in track at Myrtle Beach High School.
Follow felibertyangelo.