CPA's Kane Patterson: Why I signed with Clemson

The Tennessean has asked members of this year's Dandy Dozen to submit an essay in their own words why they signed with their school on Wednesday.

Here is what CPA senior Kane Patterson said about his signing with Clemson.

In my opinion, a college decision is a bigger one than most people make it out to be.

Most people just think it’s a four-year decision, but in reality it’s more like a 40-year decision.

The friends you make and people you will meet will last for the rest of your life. Because of this, I visited around 25 schools during the recruiting process to make sure I ended up where I was supposed to be.

I made a criteria for colleges my sophomore year to help me make my decision. My criteria was championships, culture, and education.

A bunch of schools I looked at had a lot of one of my criteria but not as much the others. The school I wanted to go to needed to have all three of those.

That is why I chose Clemson. First off the culture at Clemson is unlike any of the others I have been around.

There is a real since of family and brotherhood. Coach (Dabo) Swinney has really created something special at Clemson and I knew I wanted to be a part of it.

Next championships, Clemson has been in every year since the college football playoffs have started. I knew I wanted to play on a team that pushes each other to be the best so that you have an opportunity to play in the biggest games in college football.