4-Star OL to Visit for App State, says 'It Doesn't Get Much Better' Than Clemson

CLEMSON- One of Clemson’s top offensive line targets is set to return to campus this weekend.

4-star Bear McWhorter (Cass, GA) will be on hand for the App State game Saturday night. It will be his first time on campus since the summer, when McWhorter picked up his offer from the Tigers.

This will also mark the high school junior’s first recruiting trip since the summer, as he gets set to kick off a busy fall that will see him make several stops at some of the better programs in the country. While McWhorter may still be early in the process, the visits he takes this season will be important ones.

“Seeing how the atmosphere is on game day,” McWhorter told The Clemson Insider. “Are the fans showing up, not making much noise at all, or are they all the way packed in the stadium and being as loud as possible. That’s really a big thing for me because you only get so many opportunities every year and I want to play in front of the biggest and loudest crowds.”

Since the contact period began back in June, McWhorter said his relationship with offensive line coach Matt Luke has really started to blossom.

“It’s been great,” McWhorter said. “He has done a really good job of calling and texting. I just got off the phone with him about an hour ago. Getting to learn more about me and my family. I would say our relationship has definitely grown a lot. And it has been really fun.”

While he was not on hand for the Tigers’ season-opening defeat to Georgia in Atlanta, McWhorter did watch the television broadcast, and he thought the Clemson offensive line held its own against a stout defensive front, despite the blowout loss.

“I thought they played well,” he said. “I mean, they got a lot to build on just off of that. And I know they’ll continue to improve. Coach Luke is a really good offensive line coach. But I think they put a lot of good things on tape and they’ll have a lot of work on and build on from that.”

McWhorter ranks as high as No. 9 among all interior linemen and No. 200 overall. Tennessee, South Carolina and LSU are some of the other schools he said are recruiting him the hardest, with Oklahoma, Michigan, Alabama and Wisconsin being other schools starting to show a lot of interest.

Along with Saturday night’s trip to Clemson, he also has game day visits set to Tennessee, South Carolina, LSU, Michigan and Wisconsin and is still working on adding a few more to the slate.

After the season, and once he has taken those fall visits, McWhorter is hoping to have a list of finalists that he can begin focusing on. From there he plans to take officials next summer, before making a decision sometime before the start of his senior season.

Relationships are something he says will factor prominently into his decision, as will culture.

“Biggest thing is a relationship with coaches. Then personnel and everything,” McWhorter said. “Just where I see myself. Talking to players and going through and seeing the campus and everything like, ‘Do I see myself living life here.’ Going about my life just in the town and the campus. Because yeah, I’ll be doing football a lot, and that’s obviously the most important, but I don’t want to be somewhere that I just can’t see myself fitting in.”

As things currently stand, McWhorter said the Tigers are in a really good spot with him and he is more than looking forward to experiencing a night game atmosphere in Death Valley.

“They are near the top, definitely,” McWhorter said. “Just the culture, the relationships I have with the coaches, I mean it doesn’t get much better than Clemson.”

A limited number of signed footballs from Clemson’s 2022 class are still available.  Get yours while supplies last!  Visit Clemson Variety & Frame or purchase online!