Million-dollar NIL offers are no longer some wild exception in college football recruiting. They’re part of the conversation now, and a new Rivals report shows just how far that market has moved.
Pete Nakos reported Thursday that Tennessee landed prized running back David Gabriel-Georges with a $2 million NIL offer. In the same story, Nakos also said South Carolina pulled in cornerback Joshua Dobson this summer with a $1.5 million NIL deal.
Dobson, who was at Catawba Ridge before moving to Hough High in Cornelius, N.C., is listed by the Rivals High School NIL Valuation table as the sixth-highest-paid high school football recruit in the country, counting all classes and even the incoming freshmen in the 2026 group. Rivals has not confirmed Dobson’s deal, according to its own table.
That same Rivals data puts Dobson in rare company. If he’s able to play for South Carolina this season, he would rank as the third-highest-paid player on the roster, behind quarterback LaNorris Sellers and defensive end Dylan Stewart, who are both listed at $2 million through verified NIL deals. The next-highest figure nationally on the table is $1.2 million.
Nakos also wrote about nine different 2027 football recruits who are drawing million-dollar-or-more offers from schools. Clemson, meanwhile, does not have a commitment or incoming freshman in the Rivals NIL Valuation page’s top 100 highest-paid players nationally.
On the recruiting front, one of the bigger decisions in the Southeast finally has a date. Safety Seth Williams of Atlanta, a former Clemson commitment, has set Friday for his announcement after pushing back a July 3 decision to give himself more time. He’ll reveal his choice through 247Sports, likely in the 6:00-6:30 p.m. window.
“I’m pretty sure I’ll be ready by then and be all right with my decision,” Williams said. “I’m just going over that aspect of who’s going to develop me the most and where I’m going to go and get to the next level.”
Williams said Clemson is still in touch regularly, though he hasn’t spoken much lately with head coach Dabo Swinney. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, he said, reaches out about twice a week.
Georgia already added another safety this month in Adryan Cole of Douglasville, Ga., but Williams said that doesn’t change his thinking. “Just as tough as college football is, I feel like I want to go in with a good recruiting class," he said.
"And if it does impact me, it probably impacts me in a positive way because he’ll be playingalongside me for a couple of those years,” Williams said. “Me and Adrian played 7 on 7 together.
That’s my guy.”
Clemson’s 2028 board keeps filling up, too. The Tigers are among the top 12 for quarterback Trey Wright of Frisco, Texas, alongside Florida State, Arizona, TCU, Houston, Oregon, Michigan, SMU, Kentucky, Kansas State, North Carolina and Missouri.
They’re also in the final six for 2028 quarterback Trace Hawkins, who listed LSU, Kentucky, Duke, Virginia Tech and Vanderbilt as the others. Safety CJ Craig-James of Birmingham, who checks in at 6-3, 190, has Clemson in his top 12 with Auburn, Florida, Cal, Miami, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Alabama, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oregon and LSU.
Clemson also picked up offers out of the 2028 class for tight ends Kaleb Ballard of Wetumpka, Ala., and Wright Martin of Nashville. Ballard, a 6-5, 221 prospect who also averaged 16 points and 15 rebounds per game on the basketball court last season, has a long offer list that includes North Carolina, LSU, West Virginia, UCLA, NC State, Ole Miss, Georgia Tech, Florida, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Alabama, Virginia Tech, Georgia and others. Martin, listed at 6-2, 245, is the son of former Furman quarterback Ingle Martin and also has offers from Virginia, Ohio State, Georgia, Arkansas and Maryland.
South Carolina also showed up in the recruiting notes elsewhere. The Gamecocks target 2028 running back Caiden Bellard was offered by Indiana, while target 2028 wide receiver John Matthews of Newnan, Ga., picked up an Arkansas offer. Camden tight end Will Haunert committed to Wofford, and AC Flora 2028 defensive end Nasir Walker was offered by Appalachian State.
In basketball, Furman coach Bob Richey announced the addition of forward Nikos Koulisianis for the 2026-27 season. The 6-foot-9 native of Brno, Czech Republic, played last season at Montverde Academy in Florida.
Furman is also in the final five for 6-8 Nolan Nelson of Charlotte, along with Florida, Southern Cal, USF and Harvard. Clemson is in the top six for 6-4 Justin Wise of Bogart, Ga., who is also considering Texas, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Georgia and Miami.
South Carolina made a few moves in baseball, starting with left-hander Nic Gibson, a former Gamecock commitment who recommitted to the program. Gibson, a native of Puyallup, Wash., attended Central Arizona JC, originally committed to South Carolina for the 2024 class, then had his elbow injury and Tommy John surgery, and has thrown only three innings over the past two seasons.
The Gamecocks also landed shortstop Ethan Bass of Northbrook, Ill., their fifth high school commitment from this year’s class. Bass had been committed to Wake Forest since Nov. 15, 2024, and before that had pledged to Illinois. South Carolina added another 2026 baseball commitment in OF/MIF Slaide Burd of Hilton Head Christian, who had previously been committed to Georgia Southern and Stetson, and 2027 RHP David Cook of Fieldale, Va., also committed to the Gamecocks.
Elsewhere on the diamond, South Carolina target free agent infielder Callum Early of Texas chose Florida State. Former Clemson catcher Steele Burd, who was at Clemson in 2025 and played last season at State College of Florida, committed to Charleston Southern. Coastal Carolina added Gulf Coast State College infielder Sam Brown through the transfer portal after he hit .331 with 13 homers and 47 RBI last season.
In Other News...
Dabo Swinney Enters 2026 With Clemson Fans Asking One Uncomfortable Question
The ACC is heading into 2026 with a familiar mix of expectation and uncertainty, and Clemson sits right in the middle of it. Miami looks like the league favorite, North Carolina is waiting to see what Bill Belichicks second season brings, Florida State has Mike Norvell under a microscope, and Duke has real roster turnover to manage after losing key pieces. Against that backdrop, Dabo Swinney remains one of the conferences defining figures, even as the conversation around Clemson has shifted from annual title contention to something far less comfortable.
For a program that entered last season with national championship hopes, the margin for patience has gotten thinner. Clemson has still been a winning team, but the Tigers have not looked like the standard-bearer they were during their peak run, and the recent playoff track record has only sharpened the scrutiny. In a league where several high-profile jobs already feel unsettled, Swinneys place in the bigger ACC picture is no longer just about chasing Miami or navigating a tough schedule. It is also about how long Clemson can keep living in the gap between its history and its present. [Read more 🡒]
Clemson Freshman Is Forcing His Way Into A Banged Up Receiver Battle
With Clemsons receiver room dealing with injuries this spring, Gordon Sellars III has been handed more work than most freshmen usually see, and the mid-year enrollee has done enough to make himself part of the conversation. The 2026 signee has taken advantage of the extra reps, using his size and competitiveness to hold up against older defenders while giving position coach Tyler Grisham another option to lean on as the group sorts itself out.
Grisham has liked the way Sellars has carried himself through the spring, noting that the freshman has looked comfortable in the kind of contested situations that tend to separate depth pieces from real contributors. Sellars also flashed in the spring game with a touchdown, another sign that he is not just filling space while the room is banged up. For a Clemson offense trying to get healthy and establish its pecking order, he has made the receiver battle a little more interesting. [Read more 🡒]
Clemson Is Dragging Out A QB Decision That Could Cost Early Games
With Cade Klubnik off to the NFL, Clemson is working through a quarterback picture that still has a little more suspense than the staff probably wants this time of year. Christopher Vizzina is the likeliest answer after serving as the backup and getting a meaningful start against SMU, while freshmen Tait Reynolds and Chris Denson are still in the mix as the Tigers sort out the position.
The longer Clemson takes to settle on a starter, the more important those early reps become for an offense that usually leans on continuity at quarterback. Vizzinas path would seem to line up with that preference, and there is also the added wrinkle of him working with offensive coaches Chad Morris and Tajh Boyd, but the real issue is simple enough: Clemson needs a reliable decision soon enough to avoid spending the opening stretch of the season searching for one. [Read more 🡒]