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CLEMSON -- Daquan Bowers signed with the Clemson Tigers in December.

He didn't tell many people. He just got the papers shipped in, signed them quickly and shipped them back. In a season in which he was constantly put in the spotlight, the Bamberg-Ehrhardt star and ESPN's top-ranked prep player in the country used the virtue of a cumulative 3.1 GPA to graduate early from high school. He just didn't want much attention brought to the fact that he was officially taking his self off the market for other colleges.

"I just didn't care for the attention of signing," he said. "I didn't do anything special. I signed the paper and shipped it off."

So, Wednesday, while so many other prep prospects were making commitments official, many of them signing on the dotted line at their high schools, Bowers' day was that of a normal college student...kind of. He woke up around 7 a.m., went to English class, worked out around 3:30, and oh by the way, he made that live appearance on ESPN. Maybe it wasn't the normal day of a college student, but it was probably as close to a normal day as Bowers was going to get Wednesday.

He spent the rest of his time watching closely as his Tigers reeled in one of the nation's top classes.

"Oh, we have some good guys coming in," he said. "We finished, I think, number two in the nation in recruiting according to ESPN.

"I think we had a total of nine players sign that were in (the Under Armour All-American game) and I am ready for a re-unitement with them."

While he did his best to downplay the hoopla surrounding the day, Bowers said Wednesday had he and the other Tigers ready to get back on the field.

"I am waiting on spring ball to come around right now," he said. "The other freshmen are real excited. We are all real excited about playing for Clemson University, and I think we are going to do very well this season."

T&D Sports Editor Brian Linder can be reached via e-mail at blinder@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5553. Check out his blog, Welcome to Linderland, at www.thetandd.com.

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