On Wednesday, Clemson football added a commitment from quarterback Bubba Chandler, who until recently was committed to play baseball at Georgia.
Clemson offered Chandler on May 7. On May 11, he announced he’d be reopening his recruitment and that he wanted to play both baseball and football in college.
Chandler announced his decision to play both sports for Clemson via Twitter on May 20.
Out of North Oconee High School in Bogart, Georgia, Chandler is a right-handed pitcher and shortstop. He originally committed to play baseball at UGA in June. With Georgia not being able to offer him a football scholarship, he’s decided to attend Clemson, where he can pursue both sports.
Chandler originally did not expect to receive interest from Clemson, a school that he’s never actually taken a recruiting visit to. But when Clemson quarterback target Christian Veilleux committed to Penn State a few weeks ago, it left the Tigers looking for a signal-caller in their 2021 class. So Clemson took a swing at a two-for-one deal and it paid off.
He did, however, visit Clemson in 2018 when his friend on the football team got him to tickets to see a game in Death Valley.
“[The Clemson coaches] just watched my film, a lot of my Twitter videos, and I talked with the coaches pretty much every day on the phone,” Chandler told ESPN. “Then, of course, our high school head coach knows [Clemson safeties coach] Mickey Conn pretty well. Clemson’s coaches asked our head coach about me, my character, and I guess they liked what they heard.”
Chandler has been playing both sports for nearly his entire life, and will continue that at Clemson.
“They’re going to develop me into the best player I can be in both sports,” Chandler said. “They have a chance to compete for a national championship every year. I’ve always wanted to play football in college, and what better place to play football than at Clemson?”
As for Georgia, the Bulldogs already have another quarterback committed in the 2021 class who also happens to be from Bogart. That’s 5-star dual-threat Brock Vandagriff.
