Why South Carolina's staff has to keep tabs on eighth- and ninth-grade recruits

This week marked the start of the college football recruiting evaluation period, a six-week stretch where assistant coaches can travel the country, not speaking to perspective players, but to watch prospects work out, practice and to interact with coaches and other high school staffs to learn more about the kid.

That latter part might involve talking to a principal, counselor or teacher, but the trips also let a college coach build relations with a high school coach and get a sense for the talent nearby and talent coming up.

On Monday, South Carolina offensive line coach Eric Wolford started the first of what will be many treks through the state. One of his goals was to learn more about younger players from the coaches he saw.

How young?

“I think the biggest thing is continuing to find the young players that are upcoming, the eighth-graders, the ninth-graders,” Wolford said Monday at a Spurs Up Tour stop.

Those players will be in the classes of 2021 and 2022. Offensive line is arguably the most developmental position in a sport heavily built on development.

The reason to start learning about those players early feeds into something else.

“You want to get them to camp,” Wolford said. “If it’s a 2020 kid, we need to somehow get him in camp this summer because you run the risk of the following year, he may already have his decision made, and you never had the guy in camp.”

The recruiting cycle has a lot of players pulling the triggers on commitments in spring of their junior years. USC’s staff emphasizes getting to work with players hands-on, often to learn about less concrete skills such as work ethic and drive as much as physical ability. There also can be a challenge in a player’s recruitment catching fire during his junior year, and South Carolina’s staff having to make decisions without the full amount of information it prefers to have.

And so, learn about the young players, try to get them in camp and get all the pieces in place.

“My thing is, you can work a guy out in camp, get a good feel for the intangible things you want to find out about a player,” Wolford said.

This story was originally published April 19, 2018 at 7:52 PM with the headline "Why South Carolina's staff has to keep tabs on eighth- and ninth-grade recruits."