Gaddis solid or soft commit

One of the top athletes from the state of North Carolina committed to the Clemson Tigers back in July but has left the door somewhat open, leading many Tar Heel fans to believe they had reason to hold out hope for landing him. So is C.J. Gaddis still open?

"I would consider myself to be a pretty strong Clemson verbal commitment right now," said the 6-foot-0, 185-pound Gaddis. "After I came back from the game against South Carolina I realized how big football is down there. Sometime it's big here (state of North Carolina), but in South Carolina it's huge.

"The more and more I think about the more I envision myself at Clemson. I'm not saying I'm closing the door on any schools in particular quite yet, but it looks like Clemson right now to be honest. There's just that feel where you really think something is right and that's what I'm feeling right right now. Right now I'm pretty sure I know it's Clemson unless something huge happens."

Gaddis runs the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds and is one of the top two to three athletes from North Carolina. As one of the Top 20 overall athletes in the nation, he has received plenty of offers from top programs such as Clemson, North Carolina, Georgia and about 20 more.

The star from Raeford (N.C.) Hoke County has been hotly recruited by almost every school in the region for months and rumor had it that he was still considering North Carolina and Georgia. But apparently that's not so much the case anymore, if it's even occurring at all.

"I don't want to give names of schools and most people know who I'm talking about. I just wanted to keep my options open for a while and make sure Clemson was the place for me. Like I said, I'm not shutting the door on any schools, but I like Clemson more and more each day. It's going to take something really, really big to get me to go somewhere else and right now I don't see that happening.

"I'll still probably visit North Carolina (Dec. 6) and Georgia (Dec. 13) but probably not any more than that. I want to try to get back to Clemson a couple more times before signing day. It seems like when I go down there I get pumped up to put on a Clemson jersey. It should be fun. But like I said, I'm probably more of a 'solid' verbal than a 'soft' verbal right now."