Checking in with four-star Gamecocks commit Alex Huntley, a week before signing day
Alex Huntley gets to wrap things up real soon.
The four-star South Carolina defensive line commit didn’t sign his national letter of intent six weeks ago. Coming off a pretty packed month, he’s ready to finish off the process and become a Gamecock next week. His delay came amid some rumblings about his future head coach, Will Muschamp, and he even took a visit to see the University of Virginia.
After a basketball game this week, the only visit he wanted to talk about was one of Muschamp’s new hires.
“I was at South Carolina the other day meeting their new strength coach,” Huntley said. “It was really good. I’m really happy with with coach, the hire, he’s a great dude. He seems very intelligent. So I’m excited.”
Paul Jackson joined the USC staff in December, coming from Ole Miss to replace Jeff Dillman. Jackson’s background is in sprint training, and the hope is he’ll help the team get a rash of hamstring issues under wraps.
Huntley’s mother Lisa tweeted about how excited she was coming out of the meeting with Jackson. Her son saw some specific things he liked as well.
“I just like how he starts with teaching the technique,” Huntley said. “He’s not just going to throw you in there. He’s going to teach you and then let you go after is. So that’s good.”
Strength coaches often play a big brother role as well, a sounding board and confidant who has considerably more interaction with players over the course of a year. Jackson has said that’s one role he’s sure to take.
Huntley went from football season to watching his friend, teammate and five-star recruit Jordan Burch commit to South Carolina. Then Huntely participated in the All-American Bowl in Texas before returning to the Hammond basketball team for the first time since his freshman year (he and Burch make an interesting point guard-center combo). And he’s enjoying the stretch run.
“It’s good,” Alex Huntley said. “You know, just wrapping up my last couple months of senior year, you know, I got this little stretch here this winter to spring stretch, but I’m just soaking it all in just trying to make the most of everything.”
Unlike many players, he didn’t have the chance to enroll early because students cannot accelerate their graduations at Hammond. So the No. 214 player in his class per 247Sports gets to go through a more normal second senior semester.
At 6-foot-4, 285 pounds, he gets to play basketball again. Soon enough, he’ll finish out his lacrosse career. Next week he’ll sit at a table with Burch and Skyhawks quarterback Jackson Muschamp, son of his future head coach Will Muschamp, filling in paperwork and locking in life after graduation.
After putting up more than 60 tackles and 20 tackles for loss as a senior, he’ll head into a different kind of football atmosphere, working with USC’s new strength coach across the summer and joining the Gamecocks’ promising defensive front.
But for now, he’s come through a hectic month-plus and has a lot left to do, starting with putting pen to paper next week.
“It’s crazy,” Alex Huntley said. “It’s surreal, something you’ve been working for all your life. So it’s just another thing that means you’re just gonna have to work harder. So it’s exciting.”
