By Dave Holcomb
SouthernPigskin.com

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After an impressive early signing period haul in their 2020 recruiting class, it’s safe to say Clemson isn’t going anywhere.

The college football media was quick to anoint Clemson the next dynasty after the Tigers routed Alabama in the National Championship Game last year. If Clemson wins another championship or even plays well in this years College Football Playoff, it will be harder to argue the Tigers arent the premiere program in college football.

But even if Clemson ends its season with a loss against vaunted Ohio State, the Tigers arent going anywhere. Clemson proved that with its terrific showing on early National Signing Day.

Each program usually spins recruiting in a positive way in order to give the appearance the team is headed in the right direction. To be fair, its hard not to be optimistic with 15-25 new players. National Signing Day is like the NFL draft — on paper, everyone improves.

No matter how recruiting is spun this year, though, Clemson walked away as the biggest winner of the early signing period.

Based on the 247Sports composite rankings, Clemson finished with the top class. That ranking uses a point system where only Alabama came close to duplicating what Clemson did this year on the recruiting trail.

However, it took Alabama 26 commits to nearly score the same amount of points as Clemson, who had 23 signees. That means the Tigers average grade per player was noticeably higher than Alabamas average.

On early signing day, only Georgia matched Clemson in terms of average grade per signed prospect, and the Bulldogs had four fewer commits then the Tigers. With fewer players, Georgia is positioned fourth.

Of Clemsons 23 commits, a whopping 17 were either 4-or-5-star players. That gave the Tigers the second-most 4-star or higher rated players in the 2020 class.

There was no competition in the 5-star category, though, as Clemson landed six 5-star prospects. Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia, whos classes are ranked second, third and fourth according to 247Sports, had seven 5-star signees combined.

The next closest school to Clemson with three 5-star commits was Alabama. Clemson had three players commit who 247Sports considers the best at their position in the class — defensive tackle Bryan Bresee, strong-side defensive end Myles Murphy and quarterback DJ Uiagalelei.

Therefore, with this class, not only will the Tigers continue to be home to some of the top talent in the entire country, but the program will continue to excel at what its been known for these last few seasons — NFL talent on the defensive line and strong quarterback play.

Bresee is the consensus top recruit in the class. Clemson coach Dabo Swinney placed very high expectations on the young man, comparing him to Christian Wilkins on Wednesday but saying that Bresee x9cis stronger, more heavy-handed and violentx9d than Wilkins was at the same age.

Uiagalelei will have to wait one more season behind Trevor Lawrence before playing regularly behind center, but every indication is that hell be the next great quarterback at a school thats produced Lawrence and Deshaun Watson in the last handful of years.

That kind of line of succession at one position usually garners a nickname in college football like QBU. Of all the position-U labels a college program could earn in modern football, is there a more important one than QBU?

If Clemson doesnt earn that nickname, itll probably be because its dominated every position in recruiting lately. The Tigers landed two Top 10 recruits, four Top 20 prospects, seven in the Top 30 and 11 in the Top 100. Even more impressively, they came from all over the country.

Bresee is from Maryland while Uiagalelei hails from California. Clemson also landed 5-star players from Georgia and Florida. The Tigers landed 4-star prospects in the competitive states of Texas and Alabama.

Clemsons national footprint has never been greater. In all, the Tigers 23 recruits came from 11 different states and the District of Columbia. Only one came from South Carolina, and that was defensive coordinator Brent Venables son, Tyler.

It all adds up to the first No. 1 recruiting class in the history of Clemson football.

Swinney has recruited well before but based on the 247Sports composite rankings, the Tigers have never even had a Top 5 class nationally prior to this year. Just imagine what Swinney and his staff will do in the ACC now that Clemson is dominating in recruiting like it has on the field the last two years.

If Clemson doesnt lose in this years College Football Playoff, the program might just run that winning streak closer to 45 than 30.