CLEMSON LANDS 4-STAR HUGHLEY
Gainesville (Ga.) four-star quarterback Kharim Hughley caught Clemson’s attention, and then he didn’t let go.
Hughley (6-0, 200) abruptly announced his commitment Thursday to the Tigers, less than a week after scoring his offer.
Georgia’s offer in early January got the recruiting ball rolling, with Ole Miss, Florida State, Auburn, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Duke and Illinois among the notables to have come since.
“I knew where I wanted to go,” Hughley told Tigerillustrated.com. “It’s mainly the culture that Dabo (Swinney) has set and their proven history of quarterback development. Just hearing other people up there talk about Clemson, there’s really no other place to go.”
Hughley, tabbed No. 190 nationally in the Rivals Industry rankings, attends the same high school as former Clemson standout Deshaun Watson.
As we documented earlier this week, though, the bigger connections were that Dabo Swinney is a former Alabama teammate with his high school head coach. Plus Hughley’s freshman year coincided with the senior season for Clemson defensive tackle Champ Thompson, who redshirted last fall.
Hughley is also friends with Clemson’s opening 2027 commitment, Jefferson (Ga.) four-star linebacker Max Brown.
In 10 games as a sophomore, Hughley threw for 2,543 yards and 22 touchdowns to just two interceptions, completing 60 percent of his passes.
Hughley competed at the second day of the Dabo Swinney Camp in early June.
Clemson made him one of its three new quarterback offers Friday.
It was first-come, first-serve … and Hughley jumped on it.
He joins Brown to become the second commitment for the ’27 class.
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“It’s exactly what I thought it would be,” Hughley told Tigerillustrated.com of Clemson earlier this week. “It’s a big school from which you expect big things. Just watching the players when they introduced themselves at the camp, I was paying attention to how they interacted with each other while they were just standing there, and you could tell they really like each other and enjoy being around each other. There have to be very few problems in that locker room, if any.”
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“I like coach (Garrett) Riley. I like his coaching style. His relationship with the other coaches, you can tell their culture is strong.”
