What Shane Beamer had to say about every National Signing Day addition for Gamecocks
South Carolina football added four new members to its recruiting class of 2021 on Wednesday, as coach Shane Beamer went through his first February National Signing Day. All four of the newcomers are on the defensive side of the ball, and speaking with reporters Wednesday afternoon, Beamer shared what he liked about each.
T.J. Sanders, DL
Three stars | 6-foot-4, 285 pounds | Marion, South Carolina
“It’s always going to be important for us to keep the best players in South Carolina at home, and T.J. is one of those guys that without a doubt is one of the very best players in South Carolina. So we’re fortunate that he’s headed our way. Had a great senior season playing in the state championship over there at Marion. I love the fact that he is 6-foot-4, 285 pounds and my man is averaging a double-double on the basketball court, which is pretty impressive, kind of shows his athleticism.
“But (he’s) somebody that when I got here was committed to us and I immediately watched his video, and when you’ve got a guy with that kind of athleticism that can play on the interior of the defensive line, and he’s an in-state player, he’s a great young man and comes from a winning program — you’ll take those guys all day long.”
La’Dareyen Craig
Three stars | 6-foot-2, 175 pounds | Mobile, Alabama
“Goes by Hollywood, really awesome personality. You guys are gonna enjoy getting to know him as well. Another one that was a fight to the finish, with some teams that came in late on him as well — we were certainly one of them ... we haven’t been on him forever. We just got on him only recently, but here in the last 24-48 hours, he’s got a lot of suitors come attacking.
“But a guy that, obviously coming from Alabama, being able to get into that state more and more from recruiting will be great for us. And size — in this league it’s all about matchups. We’ve got a 6-foot-8 receiver that just joined the roster, so at the defensive back position, you better be able to match up and have size and physicality at the defensive back position. And Hollywood brings that to the table, 6-foot-2, 175 pounds. His best football’s in front of him. Magnetic personality and will be be able to help us from a defensive standpoint and then, all these guys from a special team standpoint as well. As you increase your depth, that only makes your special teams better and better, and he’ll certainly have a big role in that also.”
Tavareon Martin-Scott
Unranked | 6-foot-3, 220 pounds | Fort Wayne, Indiana
Kolbe Fields, LB
Three stars | 6-foot-1, 205 pounds | Metairie, Louisiana
“Back in December when I talked about us sitting down and kind of figuring out what we need to attack and what we need to address from a personnel standpoint, on defense it was linebackers/outside backer type guys. And we knew we didn’t have a ton of scholarships, so we had to be real selective and exact about who exactly we were going to pursue. And from day one, it was Kolbe and Bam (Martin-Scott). And those were the guys that were at the top of (defensive coordinator Clayton) White’s list and our defensive staff’s list, and that’s what I’m excited about, is we said these are the two guys, we pursued them. We offered both those guys back in December.
“Kolbe was committed to another school at the time and then announced on Twitter that he had been offered by South Carolina. And frankly, you worry about a kid all the way out in Louisiana, and Bam, all the way halfway across the country, being able to get those guys to Carolina when you have a lot of suitors coming after them. So really impressed that we were able to identify them early. We went after them early, they stayed with us and ended up signing with us and had a lot of competition for those guys.
“I was on the phone with Bam and all of our coaches were up until last night, because you got a lot of people that are coming at them from a lot of different directions, that didn’t like hearing that they weren’t coming to their school and were coming to South Carolina instead.
“But we’ve got to have guys at the linebacker position that are big and have the physical traits that we’re after, but have a mentality to them as well. And these guys have that, they’re hard workers, they’re all business every time I talk to them. They’re either working out, getting ready to go work out or just finished working out all the time. And they’re appreciative of this opportunity and both of them have really, really big upsides and (I’m) excited to see what they’re going to be able to do in coach White’s defense and once they get in the weight room with coach Day and here in nutrition with Kristin (Coggins) and as we continue to develop those guys.”
This story was originally published February 3, 2021 at 4:56 PM.
