Dutch Fork’s Jarvis Green signed to attend Clemson University and play football on Wednesday, December 21, 2022.
jboucher@thestate.com
Irmo
Jarvis Green was on cloud nine earlier this month when Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney called and formally extended the scholarship offer he’d been waiting on for years.
Joyfully pacing around his room, sprinting downstairs to break the news to his parents and celebrating with a LongHorn Steakhouse dinner immediately afterward was “definitely a dream,” the Dutch Fork High School running back said Wednesday. “I thought I’d have to wake myself up.”
But now that it’s official? That the national letter of intent is signed and delivered? That Green, one of the state’s most productive high school running backs, will soon be switching his Midlands silver and green for that coveted Upstate orange and white?
“It’s real,” he said. “And it’s really a blessing.”
Green was one of three senior Dutch Fork players who put pen to paper Wednesday morning on the first day of college football’s 2023 early signing period, continuing an epic run of next-level production for a program that’s won six state titles over the last seven years, including last month in the Class 5A championship game against Fort Dorchester.
Linebacker Chandler Perry signed with Charleston Southern, defensive back Landon Danley signed with Virginia and Green, the No. 16 recruit in the state of South Carolina per 247Sports, signed with Clemson after a December that he could only describe as a “roller coaster.”
Playing for the Tigers was “always my goal,” Green said, but for a long time he wasn’t sure it was going to happen. The 5-foot-9 recruit was sought after by FCS and FBS Group of Five schools leading into his senior year, and verbally committed to James Madison this August.
He was on Clemson’s radar — just not all the way on it.
“It took a while,” Green said. “I just kept my faith in God and my trust in coach (Tom) Knotts. … I knew everything was gonna fall into place.”
Rushing for 2,272 yards and 33 touchdowns as a senior certainly didn’t hurt his case. Neither did catching 36 passes for 527 yards and another six touchdowns. Or going for 241 yards and three touchdowns in a state championship win.
With each 100-yard game and 200-yard game and 300-yard game (yes, Green even hit that threshold against Spartanburg), the buzz grew. Dutch Fork coach Tom Knotts started publicly stumping for his senior running back, telling reporters after one playoff win that “I don’t know why Dabo and (Shane) Beamer aren’t knocking the door down.”
“I pushed and pushed for either one of these, Clemson or South Carolina, to offer him,” Knotts said Wednesday. “Clemson finally came through, and he definitely deserved it. He did a lot of great things for us: tremendous running back, tremendous receiver. Just a tremendous athlete.”
Green — who ranks as 247Sports’ No. 64 Class of 2023 running back nationally — ended his prep career with the second most rushing yards and rushing touchdowns in Dutch Fork history, as well as 6,000-plus career all-purpose yards and 91 total touchdowns.
Clemson finally pulled the trigger on offer Dec. 8, down to four scholarship running backs in its class after watching backup Kobe Pace enter the transfer portal and five other offered running backs commit to other schools.
Eric Green, Jarvis’ father, said he’ll never forget hearing his son thundering down the staircase of their home in Irmo after a certain national championship-winning coach made that phone call.
He’d seen Jarvis at his lowest — upset and openly wondering if he and Clemson were ever really meant to be — and now his son was at his highest: literally shaking with happiness, Eric said, as Jarvis delivered the news that made for “just the happiest day for our family.”
“He kept saying, ‘Dabo gave me the O! He gave me the O!’ ” Eric said, laughing. “I said, ‘OK, So what are you gonna do?’ He said, ‘Dad, I’m going to Clemson. I’m gonna be a Tiger.’ ”
Things moved quickly from there. Green, who’d also picked up a late Virginia Tech offer, called JMU and told them he was decommitting, which he and his father both described as the toughest part of the process given how well the Dukes’ coaching staff had treated them.
Four days later, Green was verbally committed to the Tigers, and on Wednesday he formally joined a Clemson recruiting class ranked 11th nationally for 2023. He was once again on cloud nine, but this time he didn’t have to pinch himself.
This story was originally published December 21, 2022 1:02 PM.
Chapel Fowler has covered Clemson football, among other topics, for The State since June 2022. He’s a Denver, N.C., native, a 2020 UNC-Chapel Hill alumnus and a pickup basketball enthusiast with previous stops at the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer and Chatham (N.C.) News + Record. His work has been honored by the Associated Press Sports Editors, the North Carolina Press Association and the Associated College Press.