A look back at how South Carolina recruited its first Elite 11 quarterback
One of those moments, that instance when a college just resonates with a high school student, brought Blake Mitchell into the South Carolina football recruiting class in the early 2000s.
And perhaps a little well-paced leverage kept his eye from wandering at all.
“I set up two more official visits to Florida State and Tennessee,” Mitchell said. “And then was told by one of the coaches if I took those visits, then they would start recruiting another quarterback.”
Mitchell, who started in the early years of the Steve Spurrier era, took some time this month to share a few stories about his recruitment.
At the time, Joker Phillips was his guy on the staff, the man who led his recruitment out of LaGrange, Georgia. After Mitchell Phillips moved on to Kentucky, handing off Mitchell to then-offensive coordinator Skip Holtz.
Mitchell remembered that at the time, head coach Lou Holtz, the national champion with Notre Dame and Hall of Famer, was somewhat involved, but he didn’t have the primary relationship.
Mitchell said it was a Georgia game that convinced him to make his pledge, an ideal afternoon at Williams-Brice Stadium.
“Came up, did an official visit,” Mitchell said. “It was a good ballgame. Then I was like, ‘OK. I’m done. This is my decision. This is where I want to play.’ ”
The Gamecocks didn’t prevail in that one, falling to the eventual SEC champion Bulldogs. USC held UGA to six points of offense, but a David Pollack interception for a touchdown and a fumble recovery on the Gamecocks’ 3-yard line made the difference in a 13-7 loss.
“I committed kind of early in that process,” Mitchell said. “I took one visit. I kind of in my mind knew that was where I wanted to go.”
But that day brought Mitchell into the fold. He had offers from schools like Tennessee, Florida State and Georgia and had been part of a recently started quarterback competition called the Elite 11. He did try to look around when Phillips left, but a little nudge about South Carolina’s eye wandering as well kept him in the fold.
“Salesmanship on the coaches’ part,” Mitchell said, adding “I was like, ‘OK, no problem. I won’t take the visits.’ ”
His high school coach even had him call the Seminoles and Vols staffs to inform them of the situation and to not come visit him at his high school
Mitchell went on to redshirt and then play little in Lou Holtz’s final season. But when Steve Spurrier arrived Mitchell mostly took the reins, leading the team in passing yards three times, occasionally splitting time with Chris Smelley and Syvelle Newton.
He left school with the third most yards and touchdowns in program history and now sits sixth and seventh, respectively, in those categories.
Looking back now, he enjoyed everything that led up to being a Gamecock.
“It’s a good process when you have multiple colleges coming after you, telling you how good you are,” Mitchell said. “Telling you that you can make an impact on their program. It’s a flattering process that someone thinks you are that good of a player.”
