How four-star Southern Cal transfer was almost a Gamecock out of high school

Keir Thomas didn’t have much advanced warning the reunion was coming, but he’s pretty pleased to see an old friend in the same uniform.

It doesn’t hurt that friend is a former top-100 recruit joining South Carolina football.

At one point, Thomas and Jamel Cook were supposed to go to Florida State together. Both had committed there out of Miami Central High school.

But Will Muschamp changed things on that front.

“We were going to go to Auburn,” Thomas said. “Coach Muschamp came here. The plan was to come here. I enrolled early. He had to go, took his visits and he changed.”

Cook ended up at Southern Cal for two seasons, redshirting and playing sparingly. The 6-foot-4, 191-pound safety left in April and officially joined the Gamecocks this week.

He’ll have two years to play and will add an older face to a position that will potentially lose four big contributors after the season.

Thomas gave a scouting report on his former teammate, what Gamecocks fans can expect in 2019.

“He’s a good player,” Thomas said. “He’s physical, big. He’s not afraid.”

He said he was happy when he got the news, but he didn’t play much role in bringing Cook in. He said he didn’t know it was in the works.

As a high school senior, Cook had 41 tackles and six interceptions, two he took back for scores. He also added eight catches for 136 yards and three touchdowns on offense. He was the No. 99 player in his class in the 247Sports composite rankings, the No. 2 athlete nationally.

And his old and new teammate, Thomas, has already started talking him up to the rest of the secondary.

“I told them,” Thomas said. “He’s a good player. He’ll be able to help us a lot.”

This story was originally published August 7, 2018 at 2:31 PM.