JUCO signee is ‘so ready’ to get on the field at USC: ‘I’m ready to play right now’
First and foremost, Marcellas Dial is just excited to play football again. It’s been a while since the South Carolina signee was able to don pads for a game after his second season of junior college ball was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Man, I’m so ready to get back on the field,” Dial told The State on Tuesday night, just a few hours before he officially signed with the Gamecocks. “I ain’t played football in so long. It’s gonna be crazy to get back on the field in pads, going at it.”
And once he does get to Columbia as a midyear enrollee, the 5-foot-11, 180-pound defensive back is confident in his ability to make an impact for USC.
“I feel like I’m ready to play right now. I know there’s going to be a little bit of an adjustment, but I feel like it’s not going to take too long to get used to. I feel like I can get in and earn a spot right away,” Dial, a three-star prospect ranked 47th nationally among JUCO recruits, said.
Dial, who had an interception, a fumble recovery and five pass breakups as a freshman at Georgia Military College, committed to the Gamecocks back in March, at the very beginning of the coronavirus shutdown. Since then, USC has parted ways with coach Will Muschamp and hired a new head coach in Shane Beamer.
But the Woodruff, South Carolina, native never wavered in his commitment, and he said all of his conversations with Beamer have only made him more excited to return to his home state.
“Just a lot of positive things like (he’s) ready to get the program back on track, and how when I come down there and earn the starting spot and whenever we start playing, whenever we get on track and start winning games, how much the fan base is gonna love us and how much of a difference we can make. Just the energy is really, really good. I really like him,” Dial said.
And Dial may not return home alone. South Carolina has extended scholarship offers to three of his GMC teammates, including cornerback Isaiah Norris, defensive lineman Byron Young and offensive lineman Anthony Belton
Should any of them decide to commit to South Carolina as well, that would make USC “feel like home even more,” Dial said.
And although Dial is, at the moment, the only junior college commit for the Gamecocks, that seems likely to change. Several of Beamer’s first offers as head coach of South Carolina were to JUCO players, as he looks to rebuild a depleted roster in a tight timeframe.
Should Beamer turn to the junior college ranks and raid the transfer portal to fill out South Carolina’s relatively small 2021 recruiting class, as many expect him to do, he would hardly be the first head coach to bring in players with more than high school experience to jump start his tenure. It’s a relatively common tactic to keep a team competitive while the high school recruiting engine revs up.
And Dial says if that’s the route Beamer chooses to take, he’ll have a class full of hungry, determined JUCO kids.
“We’re gonna bring a different energy, because we already know ... we’ve already been at our lowest point,” Dial said. “So we going to bring a different energy when we’re on the field. We’re already focused, we’re already been at the lowest. So we’re gonna bring a different energy, a positive energy and a winning energy. Because we ain’t got no time to wait. We’re ready to play.”
