How Clemson's Failure to Land a Top Recruit Turned into a Great Success Story

If you can imagine taking all the craziness of college football recruiting, balling it up and throwing it at one little town, then you might understand what things were like a few years ago at Grayson High School in Loganville, Georgia, where Robert Nkemdiche was widely considered the nation's top prospect.

Grayson High coach Mickey Conn had a story that says a lot about it. He remembers one of the recruiters, an SEC head coach, who was there to see Nkemdiche. "The guys that were showing up, they were looking at one thing," Conn said.

The coach was watching Nkemdiche so intently that he ran right into one of Nkemdiche's teammates, running back Wayne Gallman.

"I didn't come to see you," the coach joked to Gallman. "I'm here to see your buddy."

Ouch.

That's what it was like at Grayson. A 6'4", 285-pound defensive end who runs the 40-yard dash in 4.65 seconds casts a large shadow. Obviously.

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But this isn't about Nkemdiche. It's about the shadow.

The shadow explains something that very same Nkemdiche teammate, Gallman, told me on Dec. 31 while he and fellow Grayson High buddies Ryan Carter and Nick Schuessler—but not their more hyped high school buddy—were in the locker room celebrating an Orange Bowl win over Oklahoma that sent Clemson to the national championship game to play Alabama.

I asked Gallman, who had 150 rushing yards and two touchdowns for the Tigers that day, how he felt about the Grayson friends all being together in the big moment—except for Nkemdiche, who eventually decided to go to Ole Miss. I asked if he wished Nkemdiche were there, too.

He didn't exactly answer the question.

"You know, what a lot of people don't know is I was offered [a scholarship] first," Gallman said. "Clemson saw me run, and—boom—I had an offer.

"That's what a lot of people don't know."

Gallman was very polite, but his defensiveness was obvious. It wasn't out of anger directed at Nkemdiche, his friend. But it was clear there's some lingering unhappiness about the recruiting circus at Grayson and all those coaches who just couldn't take their eyes off Nkemdiche.

There was snickering, and not just behind the scenes, that Clemson was recruiting Gallman, Carter and Schuessler back then not because it really cared about them but to use them as lures to try to get Nkemdiche to come.

"Whoever's saying that, that's a bunch of bull," Conn said.

Bull or not, the perception was there. CBSSports.com's Matt Hinton noted that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a story about it. And no one wants to be seen as an afterthought. In a buy-one, get-one-free offer, no one wants to be the free one.

It's something we go through every year. This year is surely no different, with national signing day in a few short weeks on Feb. 3. Around the country, feelings are being hurt as some kids get the rockstar treatment, while their buddies are bumped into and passed over.

But that's what's so great about the story of Gallman, Carter and Schuessler. There's something to learn from it.

Were they afterthoughts? Were they pawns in a larger game to get Nkemdiche? At this point, none of it matters. They just went to the national championship game.

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"That whole story was blown out of proportion—the story that it was supposed to be a package deal, that Rob was trying to force the issue to have his teammates in high school play with him," Carter said. "That was never our intention."

To be fair, Nkemdiche was quoted by the Journal-Constitution (via Hinton) as saying, "I am waiting on Clemson to offer Ryan; when that happens, it's locked…it's a done deal…it's over."

"We were just a bunch of high school kids saying, 'I want to play together,'" Carter said. "One media person probably took it out of proportion, and the whole story blew up. People still don't give me the benefit of the doubt, don't think I'm good enough. I just try to come out and practice as hard as I can.

"But oh yeah, it's definitely insulting."

In addition to the three Grayson players who are at Clemson now, Grayson cornerback David Kamara also committed to Clemson that year. And Nkemdiche verbally committed to play for Clemson, too.

The story of his decommitment goes something like this: Nkemdiche's parents didn't know he committed to Clemson until they saw it reported on TV, and his mother wanted him to play with his brother at Ole Miss. Sure enough, shortly after, Nkemdiche backed out and decided on Ole Miss. Kamara changed his mind, too.

Clemson was left with the other three.

That's the perception of what happened. Conn said it doesn't do his former players justice.

"Robert didn't have anything to do with them getting into Clemson," said Conn, who was a teammate of Clemson coach Dabo Swinney at Alabama. "Those three were good players. And Clemson wouldn't use people to get other people. They just wouldn't do that."

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Gallman was highly regarded at Grayson—just not as highly regarded as his buddy—and did receive other scholarship offers, Conn said. 

Major colleges weren't into Carter mostly because he isn't tall enough (5'10" at the time). Conn relied on his friendship with Swinney there. He called and said Swinney wouldn't believe how good Carter is: a defensive back who is fast, versatile and all heart. Clemson came out to look and agreed.

Schuessler, the quarterback, was only held back as a recruit because he was a team player, Conn said. In the state championship game, which Grayson won 24-0, Schuessler threw three passes, completing two for touchdowns. The team didn't need to pass, so it didn't.

Schuessler signed with Mississippi State but eventually transferred to Clemson, where he's now the third-string QB.

"I don't think we were a package deal," Schuessler said. "We just had a talented team at Grayson, and that's just how it worked out. People want to put a name on it. [Nkemdiche] was the No. 1 player in the nation, and we all just chose our different paths. Ryan, Wayne and I felt Clemson was the best fit for us, and Robert did what was best for him.

"I keep in touch with him like he's my brother. He lived with me for a short period of time. I can't even imagine what it would be like with him here. We always joke around about how crazy it would be to have Rob here. Just with the talent we already have, the addition of him would be unreal."

We'll never know how it might have turned out. Nkemdiche has had his success at Ole Miss and is already leaving school for the NFL, while the national championship game capped a school-record-setting 1,527-yard season for Gallman. 

"It means a lot…to be on that list." Gallman said. "Ultimately, I'm just glad to be mentioned."

Maybe it will be the end of questions about Nkemdiche's shadow.

"I think all Wayne wants is for people to just respect him," Conn said. "He's very secure in his ability as a player. For him, it's an ongoing battle that you may not write about him but you're going to learn to respect him because he's going to get it done on the field. I think it upsets him a little when people are still talking about it, that he's living in the shadows and all that stuff.

"He doesn't live in anybody's shadows."

No matter how they got to Clemson, the Grayson friends are making the most of it. It's not just about their buddy anymore.

Recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.

Greg Couch covers college football for Bleacher Report. Follow him @gregcouch.