Academics update: Devante Covington, Toure Boyd

All but two members of South Carolina’s 2015 football recruiting class are accounted for now that defensive back Octavis Johnson revealed on Tuesday that he will have to attend Fork Union Prep in Virginia.

Johnson did not academically qualify and plans to join the Gamecocks in January if he completes the academic requirements at Fork Union.

With Johnson off to prep school, that leaves defensive end Devante Covington of Georgia Military College and defensive back Toure Boyd of Chaffey College (Calif.) as the final two signees from the 2015 class to be set for this season.

If things hold for both as they are now, they both will be with the Gamecocks by early August.

“He had a little bit of work to do but they had a plan for him and he’s just got to follow through and finish up,” Georgia Military coach Bert Williams said of Covington. “He got some weight on him. He’s up to 245-250 when he left.”

Covington has returned to his home in Rockingham, N.C., and he’s taking online classes in order to finish up his junior college degree.

“I think he’ll make it,” Williams said. “He’d be the first that hadn’t. The biggest problem with him was going home always. He’d go home and couldn’t get back until the middle of the next week. Transportation always seemed to be an issue. We expect him to get there.”

Covington is set to finish up his classwork July 29 or 30.

Defensive end Kalan Richie (Goose Creek) also is at GMC and expected to join the Gamecocks in the 2016 class. Offensive lineman Dennis Daley (Ridge View, Columbia) is off to a good start at GMC, Williams said, and would join USC for 2017.

As for Boyd, he said he still has three to four more weeks of school, and everything is looking good.

“I just had a couple of classes I was lacking I wasn’t aware of,” Boyd said. “One of them was a course I had to take for South Carolina to meet the 40 percent towards my major, either exercise science or behavioral studies. I’ve got three A’s and one B. I need three B’s and a C but I’m shooting for all A’s.”

He is scheduled to finish his classes July 28.

Boyd said he just filled out his dorm application for USC and sent over his transcript. He’s been in touch with Grady Brown.

“He’s telling me to keep my cardio up and be in shape,” said Boyd, who expects to start out as a safety when he reports in early August.

This story was originally published July 1, 2015 at 11:12 AM with the headline "Academics update: Devante Covington, Toure Boyd."