Why Beamer says recruiting rankings don’t paint full picture of Gamecocks’ class
Clearly, Shane Beamer came prepared for criticism.
Before the first-year South Carolina head coach fielded a single question about his 13-man recruiting class on National Signing Day, he stepped to the podium Wednesday and offered some context.
“When you look at our signing class numbers and rankings, yes, it’s small. It’s low. That was on purpose,” Beamer said in his opening statement. “No one talks about — when you talk about the signing class and rankings and things like that — the guys that transferred in from other places that are fantastic football players that are going to help this team immediately.”
Just how low are South Carolina’s recruiting rankings?
The Gamecocks sit at No. 78 nationally in the 247Sports Composite team recruiting rankings that factor in all networks. It’s easily the team’s lowest mark since rankings became popular in the early 2000s. USC had been in the 247Sports Composite recruiting top 25 every year since 2011.
South Carolina’s recruiting class ranks last in the SEC and is the next-to-lowest Power 5 class in the country (behind only Oregon State). Nine SEC teams are in the recruiting top 25 — and 12 are in the top 32. Only USC and Vanderbilt are outside the top 50.
In the hyper-competitive SEC, where teams are always under a microscope, it’s easy to imagine a segment of the fan base growing restless when looking at those numbers. Beamer understands how it looks, or he wouldn’t have opened his news conference the way he did.
But the context he offered is important to keep in perspective, as is the fact that Beamer didn’t arrive in Columbia until early December. Due to the widespread impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on high school and college sports throughout the country, recruiting has taken on a much different flavor, with all of the work and communication taking place virtually.
If there’s one thing Beamer has shown in his brief tenure as South Carolina head coach, it’s that he’s unafraid to do things in unconventional ways — and at his own pace. He’s taken his time shaping a coaching staff that has been in flux through most of the winter. And on the recruiting front, whether right or wrong, the new head coach made a conscious decision that smaller was better.
Since announcing the team’s initial nine-man class in December, the Gamecocks were able to tackle the NCAA transfer portal. And the seven who were brought in as transfers aren’t counted along with the 13 signees that national sites are ranking.
“(The small class) allowed us to jump into — as I hired this coaching staff — what exactly are our schemes going to be? Which personnel do we need for those schemes? Who else is out there?” Beamer said. “Me learning about our current roster here at Carolina and what we needed, which allowed us then to go into the rest of December and all of January and really attack those position needs. And we certainly did that. We were selective with the guys that we brought into this program.”
The transfers include much-needed receivers like 6-foot-8 E.J. Jenkins from the FCS program St. Francis and former Georgia Tech wideout Ahmarean Brown. The Gamecocks also added experience on the defensive side of the ball, highlighted by former Georgia State linebacker Jordan Strachan, who tied for the FBS lead with 10.5 sacks last season.
Where would the Gamecocks rank if those players were considered?
“I think pretty high,” Beamer said. “And I don’t know about the rankings ... but I went back and just watched all of the video together of all of those guys today. And it’s impressive, the group that we’ve put together. Every coach stands up here on signing day and talks about, ‘We filled our needs. We attacked our needs,’ and I really feel like we did.”
Beamer added that the coaching staff is already hard at work on 2022 recruits and said that his preference going forward would be to recruit from the high school level first. But given the timing and the unusual circumstances surrounding recruiting during a pandemic, Beamer and the Gamecocks pivoted in another direction.
Their recruiting rankings suffered because of it, but Beamer said he’s not daunted by other SEC schools like Alabama, who sits atop this year’s rankings.
“I mean, that’s the SEC,” Beamer said. “Let’s go. It is what it is. You go have a great recruiting class in the SEC, you’re probably going to be top 10 in the country. I was looking at it today, I think four of the top 10 recruiting classes I saw are guys that are on our schedule like every single year. That’s great. You want to play against the best.
“One of the core values of this program is just competition and compete in everything that we do, and we get a chance to go compete against the very best each and every week. And everything that we’re doing as a program is to move this program forward.”
USC’s 2021 signing class
OFFENSE
Colten Gauthier — QB, Bethlehem, Georgia
Caleb McDowell — RB, Leesburg, Georgia
O’Mega Blake — WR/ATH, Rock Hill
Sam Reynolds — WR, Alabaster, Alabama
Jordan Davis — OL, Fairburn, Georgia
DEFENSE
T.J. Sanders — DL, Marion
Nicholas Barrett — DL, Goldsboro, North Carolina
Kolbe Fields — LB, New Orleans
Tavareon Martin-Scott — LB, Fort Wayne, Indiana (Dodge City CC)
La’Dareyen Craig — DB, Mobile, Alabama
Marcellas Dial — DB, Woodruff (Georgia Military)
Isaiah Norris — DB, Anderson (Georgia Military)
USC’s transfer portal additions
Jason Brown — QB (St. Francis)
EJ Jenkins — WR (St. Francis)
Ahmarean Brown — WR (Georgia Tech)
David Spaulding — DB (Georgia Southern)
Darryl “Debo” Williams — LB (Delaware)
Jordan Strachan — DL (Georgia State)
Keem Green — DL (Nebraska)
