Tl;dr on the situation from what I've seen: family are devout Christians with dad being a pastor, and their beliefs lined up with Dabo's (who got heavily involved with his recruitment awhile ago). He committed out of the blue during said official silently and has honored the cult-esque Dabo rule of "no talking to any other schools when you commit", meaning he hasn't talked to Saban since he left South Carolina.
I believe like a fourth of that and think it's much more likely coaches got in his ear about playing in a system that is mostly sitting in a 2-4-5 as a DL, but that's less fun.
I mean, at the end of the day if the kid just wants to go to Clemson…whatever. Go do what you want to do. I know from our perspective it’s going to look like a horrible decision and we are going to feel like he’s being duped in some way. Some kids just make their mind up to leave the state and that’s that.
Clemson247's Cory Fravel interviewed Woods this week about this Clemson commitment. "I committed to Clemson after taking my official visit," Woods said. "I actually didn't know I was going to make that decision until I made it. I tell people all the time that I was a lock to Alabama. Something just hit me that day and I made the decision. I knew Clemson was going to be a big part of my decision and thought it could go down to the wire. But then after the official visit, there was nothing more positive that (Clemson) could show me that they could do for me as a man and player that they hadn't already shown me. So I made the decision then." Woods' father is a minister in Alabama. "Me and coach Swinney's relationship spiritually is very similar to how I've been raised," Woods said. "Coach Swinney's program is similar to how we run our program at Thompson, it's faith-based and based off: 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.' That is kind of the message that coach Swinney tells his players." Some people just are drawn to cults.
I mean this ain’t the end of the world, but I don’t think he’s a kid determined to leave the state. He was pretty much considered a lock until a month ago.
Woods going to UGA/A&M/OSU would sting a lot more. With the way Clemson is trending I'm really not concerned for the foreseeable future.
What stings is that we’ve had a relatively unremarkable d-line the last few years and we’ve got two elite linemen in state this year and we may not sign either.
Cedric The Entertainer impersonating Avery Johnson at the end of KOC is funnier now that Avery coached bama
Not too worried tbh. They have another mediocre season and we’re back in the CFP, he and Pops will have another prayer session where God leads him down a different path, and he ends up in T-town. Seen this movie before.