by Phil Kornblut
OT Ian Reed (6-5 310) of Austin, TX announced a commitment to Clemson Tuesday afternoon on his Twitter account. Reed made his official visit to Clemson last weekend. He also visited in April for the spring game, and that’s when he picked up his offer. Reed took an official visit to Tennessee at the end of May, and he had other June official visits scheduled with Wisconsin, Oklahoma state and Texas. He was also going to work in an unofficial visit to Alabama.
First year offensive line coach Thomas Austin made Reed one of his early recruiting targets and the two built a very strong relationship during the recruiting process.
“He’s such a great guy,” Reed said in April. “Even though he’s a first-time coach, he knows what he’s doing. He brings the family approach to it as well. He thinks I’m very good and have a high upside in college football. He said I could possibly go far in the NFL. He loves the skill set that I have. The system that I run in high school is similar to Clemson’s, and he likes that as well. He thinks I have some God-given talent.”
Committing to Clemson is sort of a childhood dream for Reed. He said Clemson was the first team he ever watched on television in a game, and he was hooked on the Tigers from that point.
“I actually just watched a random game, and I didn’t know anything about football,” Reed said. “It was back when I was in the third grade or something like that. I watched the Clemson-South Carolina game and I just saw the orange and white and it just looked amazing.”
Reed is the second prospect who visited Clemson last weekend to publicly announce his commitment. He’s also the first offensive tackle commitment for the 2023 class and the sixth overall. Another offensive tackle target who was in last weekend, Zechariah Owens, has set July 4th for his commitment announcement.
Clemson 2023 commitments:
NATHANIEL JOSEPH WR 5-8 170 MIAMI
CHRISTOPHER VIZZINA QB 6-4 207 BIRMINGHAM
BRANDEN STROZIER CB 6-2 175 ALPHARETTA, GA
AVIEON TERRELL CB 6-0 170 ATLANTA
DAVID OJIEGBE DE 6-3 235 WASHINGTON, DC
IAN REED OT 6-5 310 AUSTIN, TX