Nebraska commit recaps "great visit" for Clemson vs. Auburn

Radley-Hiles hopes to make it back for an official visit this season

by Nikki Hood - Staff Writer - Wed Sep 13 07:01:03 GMT-04:00 2017

Hurricane Irma ravished Florida and the Southeast for several days, but without a forced evacuation Brendan Radley-Hiles may have never seen Clemson.

The 4-star Bradenton (FL) IMG cornerback and Nebraska commit was supposed to visit elsewhere last weekend, but after traveling to stay with his brother in Atlanta because of Irma, the two decided they’d make the two-hour drive to Clemson.

While Radley-Hiles isn’t ready to officially comment on the impact of the visit, he and his family couldn’t have asked for a better unofficial visit.

“The hurricane caused me to go stay with my big brother in Atlanta and my other brother and I were talking about schools we should go visit,” Radley-Hiles told TigerNet Monday evening. “He wanted to go to Tennessee or Georgia and then we finally agreed on Clemson. Me and my big brother and my niece, we went to Clemson on Saturday. We watched the game. We got to go on an academic tour and we saw the new facility. I received the offer and that was pretty much it.”

A raucous Death Valley and an ACC-SEC primetime matchup was the perfect stage for Radley-Hiles’ first visit.

“I had a great time. It was full of great people. It was a great game that I got to witness,” Radley-Hiles said. “It was just a visit. I went to go explore to make sure I'm making the correct decision. It was an overall great visit.”

However, it was his long talk with head coach Dabo Swinney that really stood out when looking back at the weekend.

“My talk with Coach Swinney. I had about a 45-minute talk with him and I got to talk about who I am as a person, what I stand for, and altogether just who I am,” he said of the visit with Clemson’s head coach. “We talked about the program. We talked about the future. We talked about what I should be doing for the game purposes. He wanted me to visualize myself in the game and not just be a regular recruit. He wanted me to make sure I could see myself making plays in big games like that. He's a great guy and he's cool, but he's straight to it. He's serious about his job. I understand he likes to have fun a lot, but then he's a guy that gets down to business.”

Not only did Clemson leave an impression, but Radley-Hiles also has IMG teammates and Clemson commits Xavier Thomas and Mike Jones, Jr. in his ear about the Tigers.

“I'm with them every day of my life, so it's pretty normal for me,” he said. “I'd say Xavier is probably the hardest recruiter out of the two, but they both tell me what I can do that and how good it would be to be teammates at the next level.”

While Radley-Hiles wasn’t ready to comment on the status of his commitment to Nebraska, he did say that plans are already in the works for an official visit.

“I'm going to say no comment. That was an unofficial visit, so I will definitely visit for an official,” he said.

Radley-Hiles has over 30 offers from every major player in the Power 5 conferences, including Alabama, Florida, Michigan, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas, Oregon, Southern California and UCLA.