Speedy Columbia back returns to the field, has strong bond with Muschamp
There was a moment early in Friday night’s season opener for Hammond running back C.J. Stokes, the kind of thing that shows a little next-level ability.
The 5-foot-11, 190-pounder is plenty fast, having clocked a 4.4-second 40-yard dash just before receiving a scholarship offer from South Carolina. But there was a moment on an early carry Friday where he did something a little extra: He stopped.
Taking the ball outside to the left, the whole defense was flowing with him. And for all that speed, he suddenly came to a halt to cut upfield, looking as if someone had hit pause on him, as defenders just carried past.
Not long after, he scored the first of his three touchdowns, getting to the outside, turning on the jets and leaping his way over the pylon.
“He was trying to cut me, and I remember last year I was getting cut and I would just try and go down and try to get lower than them,” Stokes said. “And i just saw the goal line, so I just jumped over and tried to get over it.”
Stokes was speaking after his team opened the season with a 35-7 win against Ben Lippen, the first night of high school football in the state of South Carolina since the COVID-19 pandemic started. He finished up a solid game, 119 yards on 18 carries and the three trips to the end zone.
His evaluation of his day was that it was a solid one. Maybe he didn’t hit the holes the way he’d hoped, but he couldn’t complain about three scores, and he shared credit with an offensive line that just added college prospect Drew Bobo (son of Gamecocks offensive coordinator Mike Bobo) and a defense that looked sharp despite losing a pair of blue-chip defenders to the University of South Carolina in Alex Huntley and Jordan Burch.
Stokes said this offseason, strength and attacking holes faster were big points of emphasis.
On the recruiting side, South Carolina is the lone offer, but he’s been speaking with a few other schools.
“I have about seven schools looking at me pretty good,” Stokes said. “South Carolina, who offered me, Florida State, I talk to them every week, TCU, Georgia Tech, North Carolina. I had visits scheduled to all those schools, but corona, everything got canceled.”
Baylor is also speaking to him.
The Class of 2022 back hasn’t yet spoken too much to new Gamecocks running backs coach Des Kitchings. But the speedy Skyhawk says as long as Kitchings has coach Will Muschamp’s backing, that’s good enough.
“Coach Muschamp said really good things about him,” Stokes said. “So I can’t wait to meet him.”
Muschamp was in the stadium Friday, not as a coach recruiting but as a father, watching his son Whit make his high school debut for Hammond. (Mike Bobo was there as well.)
Stokes took handoffs from Muschamp’s son Jackson last season, and could possibly end up taking them from Whit at some point. (The freshman is a backup but is also plenty talented.)
Muschamp has known Stokes for four years, since his sons started attending Hammond. South Carolina extended the junior his first and still only offer, back when Thomas Brown was in charge of that room before departing for the NFL.
“I had a really good relationship with coach Brown,” Stokes said. “We were really close. When he went to the Rams, I actually talked to him and we talked about him leaving.”
But the bond with South Carolina’s head coach remains strong, and the speedy back has a lot more starts, maybe with a few sudden stops to shake the defense, ahead of him.
