Coming out of high school, Amari Rodgers wanted to land at a college where he could win.
If that meant spurning an offer from Tennessee, the state in which he became a highly-sought after recruit due to his stellar high school career, so be it. Rodgers not only wanted to play for a winner, he wanted to go somewhere he knew he would be developed.
“They (Tennessee) offered me a scholarship,” Rodgers said. “I went to Clemson because I wanted to win. Plain and simple, that’s really what I wanted to do. I wanted to go to a program that I knew was a winning program, and I knew I was going to be coached and turned into a player that I knew I could be.”
It was a decision that paid off. Rodgers was a member of the Tigers 2018 national title team and an outstanding career at Clemson led to him being a third round selection by the Green Bay Packers in the NFL Draft last weekend.
Rodgers said the fact that head coach Dabo Swinney having a background coaching receivers was a big part of what led him to the upstate of South Carolina.
“Going there with Coach Swinney, you know, him being a receivers coach at heart, I knew I’d be pushed to be a great receiver every single day by him,” Rodgers said. “And my last year, Coach Grisham did a great job of coaching me up too.”
Winning, playing for one of the best coaching staffs in the country, and facing off with some of the best competition college football has to offer was just to much for Rodgers to pass up. It’s a decision he thinks that has prepared him for what lies ahead as he takes the next step in his career.
“I knew I was going to be coached by the best of the best and play against the best the best so that’s why I went there.”
