photo courtesy Tampa Bay Times 

 

 

Clemson hosted one of the Sunshine State’s top prospects as Richard Gouriage out of Tampa, FL visited Clemson this weekend.   Richard who is a very soft Florida commit has opened up his recruitment after the Florida staff changes that took place after the firing of Jim McIlwain. 

 

Since then Gouriage’s recruiter of record and offensive line coach at Florida also left Gainesville to join the staff at Missouri.  Since all the upheaval with these changes, Gouriage started looking around to see if he has made the correct decision in picking the Gators.

 

Richard has held the Tigers of Clemson and the SEC version at Auburn highly in his thoughts and is in midst of 2 consecutive official visit weekends, this week it’s the Tigers from the ACC that get to lay out the Orange Carpet for the much heralded mauler from Tampa.  Then he’s off to the Plains in Auburn next weekend with the Tigers from Auburn getting the last shot. 

 

Gouriage is a right Tackle prospect but has the size and frame to move out to Left tackle, and with Clemson and offensive line coach Robbie Caldwells propensity for cross training all the Offensive Line, if Gouriage does indeed pick the Tigers of Clemson expect him to be all over the line of scrimmage.  

 

As of today Auburn is rumored to have pushed ahead of the Clemson Tigers but this weekend has a lot to do with how this all plays out.  Auburn getting that last visit is something to think about. Remember Cade Mays and UGA, He left Clemson with the Tigers ahead but that last visit is sometimes hard to overcome. As last impressions certainly influence a lot of people, much less a high school kid being promised the world by grown men and big time Universities. 

 

Recruiting is recruiting and this one we feel will go down to the very end with Clemson and Head Coach Dabo Swinney saving his “in Home Visit” for after Gouriage returns from Auburn.  Stay tuned right here as we monitor this one all the way to the end .