Nick Eason On NIL and Recruiting: If You're 'Chasing Dollars' Clemson Isn't Place for You

New DT coach Nick Eason goes in-depth on his early success as a recruiter at Clemson.

Jason Priester All Clemson

Nick Eason has hit the ground running at Clemson.

Hired in January, Eason is in the process of putting together one of the best groups of defensive tackles in the 2023 recruiting class, as the Tigers have already secured commitments from Peter Woods, Stephiylan Green and Vic Burley. All three are blue-chip prospects, with Burley and Woods arguably two of the Top-50 players in the class.

However, in typical Eason fashion, one of Clemson's newest assistants was humble when asked about the early success on the recruiting trail.

"I just try to be my authentic self," Eason said at Clemson's Media Day. "This place... Clemson will sell itself, I just need to get the recruits here."

Eason said that the success Clemson is having currently is more about what the whole staff is capable of doing, rather than what any one coach does.

"Dabo will knock it out of the park being who he is," he said. "He’s going to talk for about four hours and you’ll know everything about him, our facilities, our staff, his family and the city of Clemson. That’s what makes us unique and better than any place in the country. It’s the people in the building. I keep saying that we have a wonderful staff in every department of our facility and everybody here is just good people."

At Clemson, recruiting is all about relationships, and according to Eason, letting recruits and their families get to know him as a person is one of the top priorities.

"I just really take time to allow recruits and parents to see who I am as a person,” Eason said. “It’s easy to go on the internet and you can Google and see the places I’ve been and some of the things I’ve done, but who really is Nick Eason? That goes down to just talking about my past. All of it ain’t good. So people want to hear those things about who I really am as a person. Who are they going to be sending their son off to be around and be molded as a man and as a football player for the next three-or-four years of their lives? For me that makes it easy."

However, Clemson isn't for everyone, and the advent of NIL has only accentuated that fact. Despite the new landscape, the Tigers are still looking for prospects that buy into a team-first mentality and how they are developed off the field as much as on it. 

“The kids that love what we bring to the table at Clemson will come and the ones that don’t will go other places,” Eason said. “It depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for a faith-based program that’s going to treat you like family, that’s gonna develop you as a man, then Clemson’s for you. If you’re trying to chase dollars this ain’t the place for you. And I’m OK with that."

“NIL has really changed the game and kids earn it, but at the end of the day, we don’t lead with that. We have NIL plans here at Clemson, but we’re not going to lead with that. We want you to love Clemson like I loved and came here for reasons of education, the facilities and the people in this building and how we can mold you as a man. That hasn’t changed. I’m just really excited to be a part of it.”

The Tigers, who went 10-3 in 2021 and finished 14th in the final Associated Press Poll, are the fourth team on FanDuel Sportsbook's list to win it all in 2022.

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