Dabo has an uphill battle because so many guys down here want to play in the SEC, but he has a good pitch which is that Clemson will always be in the hunt to win the ACC and make the playoff. Aside from 'Bama, no one in the SEC can say the same, so Dabo can walk into Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and NC and pull legit talent out of those places (and his success has given him a lot of leverage over the best kids out of South Carolina) and Clemson ain't too bad of a drive for the parents to go to games. Clemson has like 5 or 6 guys on defense who are projected first or high second round picks. Their only question is QB play because they are a bit inexperienced there, but the talent that Dabo has amassed with no sign of impropriety is amazing. Until I moved to the South I had no idea why someone wouldn't want to play in the Big Ten, but I gotta say some of the schools in the South are really impressive. If I visited Knoxville, TN or Clemson, SC in November and then had a Big Ten visit the next week, it would be damned hard to go to the Big Ten.
And I agree with you on Rudock. If he had Bama's line, run game and WRs the guy would have won a title. I mean Harbaugh got him a sniff at the NFL, so the kid wasn't a slouch, just wasn't the right guy for Iowa.
I have loved watching Pierschbacher thrive at 'Bama. The kid is an absolute monster and as a fifth year senior this year he is going to absolutely maul guys. Honestly, the Clemson-'Bama game in the playoffs is going to be a treat for guys who like to see great line play because Clemson is stacked on the d-line and 'Bama is stacked on the o-line. It will surpass all Big Ten games by a factor of 10, save for perhaps watching Bosa and company tussle with Wisconsin assuming both teams make the title game.