Committed instate prospect might not sign with Gamecocks after all

South Pointe defensive back Chris Smith said after Saturday’s Shrine Bowl that he couldn’t wait to enroll early at South Carolina and get to work. He found out the next day he will not be able to.

USC head coach Will Muschamp called Smith on Sunday and informed him that the Gamecocks do not have room for him to enroll in January, according to South Point head coach Strait Herron.

Herron said Smith was upset when he received the news.

“I know he was upset and he should be,” Herron told The State. “It’s frustrating, and I just feel for the kid. The kid’s the one that’s going to get hurt in the whole situation.”

Muschamp assured Herron that Smith still has a scholarship available to enroll this summer, but Smith was set on enrolling early and beginning college in a few weeks.

“It’s important to him to get somewhere midyear, so he is going to look around and see if there are some Division One schools that need a DB or a slot receiver-type player that would still have a spot open for a midyear kid,” Herron said. “He’s told me that he still wants to be at South Carolina, but if the opportunity is there for him to go midyear he’s probably going to go with it.”

Muschamp last week told The State that USC expects to sign “between five and seven” early enrollees. So far, four are known to be planning to be at USC midyear: quarterback Brandon McIlwain; running back C.J. Freeman; wide receiver Bryan Edwards; and defensive back Jamarcus King.

With the coaching staff change, Herron said he understands where Muschamp is coming from, but he still hates that Smith was turned away just a few weeks before he was set to enroll.

“If this was the staff that had actually recruited him, if they had done this to him, it would cause a huge rift between the University of South Carolina and South Pointe football,” Herron said. “However, with it being a new staff I understand where Coach Muschamp’s at. He’s making business decisions and trying to get all this put together in a hurry. South Carolina fans are not going to sit around and wait for him to build a program. They expect him to win next year. I understand both sides of it.”

This story was originally published December 22, 2015 at 1:02 PM with the headline "Committed instate prospect might not sign with Gamecocks after all."