Seven-time state champion coach on Kiel Pollard: ‘Unlike anybody I’ve ever seen’

It’s less than an hour before his National Signing Day ceremony, and Kiel Pollard is wearing a white T-shirt with a pair of black dress shoes in one hand and his national letter of intent paperwork, recently faxed to South Carolina, in the other.

The wide receiver traverses the parking lot between the Colquitt County fieldhouse and the auditorium with time ticking down.

His suit is not all there.

“His suit was in three different places,” said Latoya Pollard, Kiel’s mother. “His coat was at the high school, which is not here. And his pants were at home. I think he had his (shirt) and his tie. And I’m like, ‘Kiel, I’m going to kill you.’ “

Thankfully for his stressed mother, Pollard is cool in a crisis.

“It’s typical Kiel,” she added. “Always calm, never rushed. He got here on time, so I’m cool with it.”

He made it back home and back to the school and into the auditorium in the sharp suit. The look wasn’t complete until, surrounded by teammates wearing hats from their chosen schools, he got up and went to the edge of the stage. A young relative handed up a Gamecocks shirt.

Auburn had come calling in the late going. Georgia tried to work something out on signing day. But even with coaches calling right up to end, even with Arkansas- and Tennessee-bound teammates trying to sway him, Pollard’s pledge to South Carolina stayed firm.

“I kind of knew as soon as they came in the picture,” said Pollard, who flipped from Arkansas the Sunday before signing day. “I was just waiting until I took my official visit. I knew when I visited and talked with the coaches, I knew it was South Carolina all the time.”

As he sat at the table Wednesday morning, his coach, Rush Probst, cracked everyone was calling him “Big-time.”

What South Carolina gets is a 6-foot, powerfully-built pass catcher who tormented defenses in Georgia’s highest classification. An impact player for the powerhouse Packers late in his freshman year, Pollard finished with his career with 199 catches. He had 76 receptions for 1,163 yards and 31 total scores as a senior, and helped his team to back-to-back undefeated seasons with a No. 2 national ranking in 2015.

He connected with South Carolina’s new staff quickly. Probst had a longstanding friendship with Gamecocks running backs coach Bobby Bentley. The coaches spent a whole day with Pollard the week of the Packers’ state championship game and put on a full-court press.

“Coach (Bryan) McClendon, Coach Bentley and coach (Will) Muschamp recruited their butts off to get me,” Pollard said. “And that shows a lot of how much they want me in the program.”

Probst said he was the most unique player he’d had in a long and decorated career.

“I just think that he’s a great player,” Probst said. “I think personally he was a five-star because of his uniqueness, and there’s just not many wide receivers that look like Kiel Pollard.

“A lot of people missed on him.”

Probst has been at the helm of seven state championship teams and called Pollard the best offensive player in the state this year. He called Georgia’s decision not to recruit Pollard all along a “crucial mistake,” promising to cheer when his charge caught a game-winning touchdown between the hedges.

“You turn the tape on, all these people are going to be wrong on him,” Probst said. “You wait, when he hits South Carolina, he’s going to be a great player. Not a good player, a great player.”

This story was originally published February 6, 2016 at 5:25 PM with the headline "Seven-time state champion coach on Kiel Pollard: ‘Unlike anybody I’ve ever seen’."