On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine: Clemson leads for Christopher Vizzina

Birmingham (Ala.) Briarwood Christian quarterback Christopher Vizzina has been the apple of Clemson‘s eye for months now, and the Tigers’ pursuit of him is paying off.

Vizzina visited campus early last week to see the team practice and then returned again this past weekend for the spring game festivities. The final visit was his fourth since November, when he became their No. 1 target after losing out on Arch Manning.

He announced Sunday that he’ll make his commitment this coming Tuesday — a little over 24 hours from now. And unsurprisingly, it is Clemson who is trending in a major way, according to the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine (RPM). The RPM gives the Tigers a 90.9 percent chance of securing his commitment, with Georgia and Ole Miss trailing behind at 2.1 percent.

RPM was released to the public on December. The On3 engineering group teamed up with Spiny.ai to create the industry’s first algorithm and machine learning-based product to predict where athletes will attend college. It factors in machine learning, expert predictions, social sentiment, visits, and historical trends. However, expert predictions are still a big piece of the RPM equation.

Driving those percentages are a pair of expert predictions from ClemsonSports.com beat writer Matt Connolly and OMSpirit recruiting writer Zach Berry. On3 National Recruiting Analyst Sam Spiegelman put in a prediction for the Tigers in early February after Vizzina visited for the program’s junior day.

Christopher Vizzina becoming a prized target

Six months ago, Vizzina was on the radar of a number of major programs, but he had yet to break into the conversation as one of the nation’s best quarterbacks.

But an impressive junior campaign at Briarwood Christian opened a number of eyes, and the offers followed. Georgia, Clemson, Ole Miss, Ohio State, and Notre Dame jumped in with offers. His home-state school, Alabama, showed interest but never offered. He quickly became a priority signal-caller in this class, joining the likes of Manning, Nico Iamaleava and Dante Moore.

Along with Vizzina’s ascension on the field has come a jump in recruiting rankings. In the most recent On300 ranking, Vizzina was tabbed as the country’s No. 20 overall prospect and No. 4 quarterback. On3 Director of Scouting and Rankings Charles Power came away impressed by his junior season film.

“In evaluating the quarterback group for this ranking a few weeks ago, we came to view Christopher Vizzina as the clear No. 4 quarterback in the cycle coming out of the junior season,” Power said. “The 6-foot-3, 195-pounder has a well-rounded skill set with a strong arm and impressive play against some strong competition. Vizzina separates himself from some other top quarterback prospects in large part due to his translatable movement skills. The Birmingham (Ala.) Briarwood Christian signal-caller may have the best pocket movement we’ve seen among quarterbacks in the 2023 cycle. Vizzina is a twitchy, quick-footed mover in the pocket and has the speed to rip off long touchdown runs once he’s loose at the second level.”