Tigers battling Gamecocks for in-state lineman Blake Franks

Blake Franks will be in Clemson for junior day this weekend.

by Nikki Hood - Staff Writer - Thu Jan 26 12:00:07 GMT-04:00 2023

Clemson faces a big weekend with another in-state lineman who is close to making a decision between the Tigers and the Gamecocks.

Four-star 2024 offensive guard Blake Franks (6-5 310) of Greenville (SC) attended the South Carolina junior day last Saturday, and actually stayed over until Sunday.

That visit came shortly after a weekend visit to Clemson, where he watched Clemson basketball take on Duke with the football coaches. This weekend, Franks is headed back to Clemson with his father for another visit to Clemson, and on Sunday, he’s headed to Auburn with his mother.

Those two visits will be the last ones for Franks. He will spend some of February trying to make his decision with South Carolina and Clemson, the two primary choices at this point.

"I’m going to think about it for like a week or so,” Franks said. “I’m hoping to make a decision by a Sunday at the end of February. I don’t want it to be during a weekday, so I’m trying to push it toward a weekend if I can. I think it’s going to be a really tough call. It’s been really hard for me to pick between those two schools. I think it’s going to be a real tough call at the end of the day."

Franks said in trying to break it all down between the Gamecocks and Tigers, there are a couple of factors he will weigh between the two.

“My education,” he said. “When I went down to South Carolina, they answered a lot of questions about the engineering program, which is something I want to do. What I really want to know from Tigertown is how family oriented they are. I think they are very family oriented already. It’s just that South Carolina is really family-oriented, a little bit more than Tigertown.”

Franks wants to get the same kind of vibe during his weekend visit to Clemson

“What I really want to see is the people I’ll be teammates with,” Franks said. “I want to see if they are good people. I also want to see some other questions I might have been answered, if I have any. And me being there and thinking about the college experience of Clemson and what it would be like.”

Going into the weekend, according to Franks, it’s too close to call. Neither has risen to the level of a clear leader in his mind.

“I think highly about Clemson and South Carolina, so I can’t really say which one I think is above the other,” Franks said. “I definitely think I like the (South Carolina) staff a lot more. It was a lot of fun getting to know the South Carolina staff. I wouldn’t say they are young, but they are definitely young-spirited. They are definitely enjoyable to be around.”