Rising QB recruit Blake Hebert commits to Clemson football

Blake Hebert’s recruitment moved fast. Now, he’s a Clemson Tiger.

Hebert, a Class of 2025 quarterback from Central Catholic (Mass.) High School, wasn’t on many Power Five schools’ radar entering the spring. But he picked up a dozen-plus big-time offers amid a May-June camp circuit – including one from Clemson on June 1.

On Friday, Hebert announced that he’s headed to Death Valley as the first quarterback commit of the Garrett Riley era.

Hebert, the No. 11 QB in his class, committed to Clemson over schools including North Carolina, Notre Dame, Rutgers, Ole Miss and Nebraska. He’s a rising junior who’s listed at 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds.

“The people were really important,” Hebert told 247Sports of his soon-to-be-public choice. “Who I would be surrounding myself with? Obviously, the feel of the school and the academics were very important. The program and how the offense is run is very important, and then the coaching staff was important to me.”

Hebert ranks as the No. 1 player in Massachusetts, the No. 11 quarterback in the class and the No. 170 overall recruit in the Class of 2025 per the 247Sports Composite, which factors in multiple websites’ rankings.

Hebert is significantly higher in On3 Sports’ in-house rankings, where he’s the No. 6 QB and No. 65 national recruit, and a tad lower in 247Sports’ Top247 rankings, where he’s the No. 19 quarterback. Hebert isn’t yet ranked by ESPN or Rivals, the other two major services.

As a sophomore at Central Catholic, Hebert completed 60% of his passes for 1,748 yards and 24 touchdowns against one interception in 12 games. His team went 9-3 in 2022.

He’s the Tigers’ second 2025 commit of the week. Four-star Liberty Christian (Va.) Academy running back Gideon Davidson – the No. 67 recruit in the class – picked Clemson over schools including Michigan, Notre Dame and Ohio State on Wednesday.

Clemson QB recruiting update

Hebert is the first quarterback to choose Clemson since coach Dabo Swinney brought in Riley as offensive coordinator and QBs coach in January.

Swinney and Riley – who won the 2022 Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant for his work at College Football Playoff runner-up TCU – have missed on a number of quarterback prospects in the Class of 2024, a cycle above Hebert.

Top 10 quarterback recruits DJ Lagway (Florida), Jadyn Davis (Michigan), Walker White (Auburn) and Prentiss “Air” Noland (Ohio State) all received Clemson scholarship offers and considered the Tigers before committing to other Power Five schools this cycle.

That can be partially attributed to the relative clarity surrounding Clemson’s quarterback room. Barring disaster, talented sophomore Cade Klubnik will be the Tigers’ starting QB the next two seasons with true freshman Christopher Vizzina positioned as his heir apparent.

A commitment from Hebert – who, as a 2025 prospect, can’t sign his letter of intent until fall 2024 – gives Clemson a head start in assembling some depth behind Klubnik and Vizzina.

Swinney also told The State in March that his program intended to sign a 2024 QB recruit before the cycle ends, either through the high school ranks or the transfer portal.

“I mean, we’re going to continue to actively recruit a high school kid if we can find the right guy, but we’re not going to reach on a guy,” he said. “Because we’ve proven that we can go get a veteran guy if we need one. We’ve done that in the past two years, going and getting Hunter (Johnson) and then getting Paul Tyson this year. So it’s not a real concern for us right now.”