What Jordan Burch, Will Muschamp and South Carolina’s class dodged Thursday night
The standstill between South Carolina football and five-star defensive end Jordan Burch came to a close Thursday night. About 31 hours after his school’s signing day ceremony, his paperwork finally arrived.
As his new coach, Will Muschamp, said Wednesday when NCAA rules prevented him from talking about Burch yet: “We’re going to be fine.”
Wrapping up that process allowed Muschamp, the Gamecocks’ class as a whole and Burch himself to dodge some pitfalls. Here’s what it’ll mean for each.
▪ Will Muschamp: In the largest scheme, Muschamp is still a fifth-year coach coming off a 4-8 season, which isn’t a spot any coach wants to be in. Burch could be a game-changer that moves the USC defense to a higher level, but he’s joining probably the most talented unit on the roster (defensive line) and his primary spot is likely the most stable (with Aaron Sterling and Kingsley Enagbare).
That said, the value of reeling in a recruit such as Burch can be of the more intangible type.
The main thing it does is prevent the alternative from coming to pass. There’s no strange, dragged-out situation, where Burch’s camp won’t say anything and the Gamecocks can’t say anything. There’s no more risk of — or potential realization of — a flip to LSU, something that seemed to loom as not likely but never impossible for more than a month.
Had the staff managed to lose the five-star teammate of the coach’s son after him being committed for more than a month but not signing twice, it would stack bad feelings for a coach who didn’t have the smoothest finish to last season.
Muschamp himself would likely brush off talk of outside perception mattering much. Many around sports would discount the deceptive idea of “momentum.” But in the end, the Gamecocks got their talented man and the good press that comes with it.
“It’s a great way to close out our 2020 signing class with Jordan Burch deciding to stay home and play for the University of South Carolina,” Muschamp said in a statement. “He is a wonderful person and I’m excited that he will be part of the Gamecock family. We really appreciate his mother, Henri, trusting us and sending her son to the in-state school. Jordan is an explosive athlete, extremely smart and versatile player who can do a lot of things on the football field and I can’t wait to coach him.”
(The “the” in “the in-state school” was italicized by the school in the statement.)
▪ The Gamecocks class: A hit would have come had Burch not signed. That hit has been avoided.
If Burch had not remained in the fold, this class would have been Muschamp’s second-lowest or maybe even his lowest-rated class at USC. It would fall from the No. 18 national ranking in the 247Sports Composite, where it sat Thursday evening, to the 20s.
Muschamp himself will rail against the rankings, and there’s debate over what a difference of five spots really means. But it would have left the team without a pure edge rusher in the class. The roster already seems a little short at the Buck position but does seem to have some depth at the bigger end spot.
Burch possesses game-changing and potential program-changing ability.
▪ Burch himself: With his ability, he would have had a great chance to do well wherever he went, and now he has a good chance to do that in Columbia.
But this whole saga had the potential to leave a mark on his name, and he has successfully avoided that.
Had all this lingered longer or ended with a flip to another college after two signing days, it would’ve ended up an indelible part of his story.
Up until he became a bonafide star, his recruiting tale would get mentioned semi-often. Alex Collins is the second-leading rusher in Arkansas history and he can’t escape the story of his mom absconding with his letter of intent. But a one-day delay? That’s something that will quickly fade into history, even if it had Gamecocks fans on edge for a stretch.
Teachers in Hammond rave about Burch and what he’s meant to that community.
Now, instead of being in the public eye as he has been for so long, Burch can settle into being a second-semester senior at Hammond. He’ll play out a basketball career and eventually shift into being a five-star freshman with the Gamecocks, with a different kind of attention coming his way.
This story was originally published February 7, 2020 at 10:30 AM.
