How the current situation is changing the Gamecocks’ recruiting process
In about a week, South Carolina’s football coaches were set to hit the road.
College coaches everywhere would be doing that, starting six weeks of trekking around the region and country. They’d be evaluating prospects and showing their faces in high schools.
After that would come camps, where student-athletes from all over would come to work with Gamecocks coaches. The staff would get measurements, get a feel for personalities and perhaps identify under-the-radar talent for the next few recruiting classes.
But those camps won’t happen, as the coronavirus pandemic has the University of South Carolina shut down. The evaluation visits were wiped out by an emergency dead period that prevents that face-to-face recruiting and currently extends through May 31.
The gates to South Carolina’s football facility are even locked most of the time, but Will Muschamp said his staff is doing what it can.
“We’re really dialing in on the film, having some great dialogue and conversations as a staff since we have more time about prospects and where they fit in our program,” Muschamp said. “And so we’ve had more time to be able to do that. And so we’re trying to make up a negative situation into a positive as best we can.”
The visit portions of the recruiting process are on hold for the foreseeable future, but Muschamp talked several times about staying in contact with high school players, and offers are still going out.
The staff’s evaluation process is likewise still able to chug along as coaches and staffers can watch film from home without much trouble.
At the moment, the team only has three prospects committed, headlined by quarterback Colten Gauthier. The class also lost cornerback Demarko Williams, who decommitted not long after getting a Florida State offer.
The entire recruiting landscape is uncertain right now, as college football or high school football might not be played at the traditional times next year, or even at all. Muschamp said his staff is proceeding as if they’ll play.
And they’ll adjust to a cycle or more without the usual level of information — such as getting prospects on campus in a camp setting — that has long been a crucial part of their process.
“It’s so critical to watch and evaluate competition,” Muschamp said, “to be able to have them on campus and work them out in camp. But you got to adjust, adapt and overcome and that’s what we’re going to do.”
