10 commits in 10 days! What South Carolina’s recruiting run means as fruitful June ends
Shane Beamer ought to be off on vacation.
With a busy June ending and a recruiting “dead period” in effect, the weeks around the Fourth of July offer coaches a brief respite before summer workouts conclude and preseason practices begin over the next month.
On Monday, though, Beamer’s effervescent personality oozed as his iPhone buzzed in the Atlanta airport. South Carolina had added another recruit’s commitment.
“All I want to do right now is stand in the middle of the Terminal A concourse and scream ‘Go Gamecocks!!’” he wrote in a 198-word tweet welcoming the latest in a string of South Carolina football commits.
Over the last 10 days, USC has hauled in 10 commitments. Seven have been made public, with another three pledges expected to be announced in the coming days.
The announcements have set social media ablaze. Beamer’s “Welcome Home” tweets signifying another addition have become commonplace.
Vacation or not, South Carolina’s recent recruiting run continues.
“That’s what you hired (Beamer) for — his recruiting chops,” 247Sports director of recruiting Steve Wiltfong told The State on Monday. “One of the attractions of bringing in coach Beamer is that he was a good recruiter, and he’s been part of some of the biggest recruiting wins that South Carolina has had over the last couple decades.”
Since 2010, the Gamecocks have finished inside the top 25 of 247Sports’ team recruiting rankings in all but two years. USC also averaged a finish of 21st over that span, not including the 2021 class — which finished 80th nationally amid the transition from Will Muschamp to Shane Beamer.
Now sitting at No. 32 nationally and No. 10 in the Southeastern Conference following its latest round of commits, Beamer and his staff have USC positioned to finish in the top 25 again come the early signing period in December.
“Everything that I’ve heard is that players are excited by the enthusiasm,” said Adam Friedman, Rivals’ national recruiting analyst and rankings director. “They like the youthful energy that these guys are bringing in. It comes from the head coach; it comes from Shane Beamer.”
That South Carolina’s new staff has jumped into recruiting quickly shouldn’t come as a surprise. Beamer has built a career as a recruiter and even served as USC’s recruiting coordinator during the Steve Spurrier years. Assistant coaches like Torrian Gray and Justin Stepp, among others, have also earned wide acclaim for their abilities on the recruiting trail.
But for what South Carolina boasts in connections and recruiting acumen, is made more difficult by geography. Most years, the state of South Carolina produces around 10 SEC-caliber players. With Clemson just up the road and Georgia and Florida not much further, it forces coaches at USC to get creative in their recruiting base.
The Gamecocks currently hold commitments from players hailing from six different states. Offensive lineman Ryan Brubaker, from Pennsylvania, committed Tuesday.
Four-star quarterback Braden Davis, who remains the crown jewel of the 2022 class, will come to South Carolina from Delaware — the same state that produced transfer linebacker Debo Williams and running back MarShawn Lloyd. Three-star safety Peyton Williams would become just the third player from Texas to sign with South Carolina since 2009 and the first since Shilo Sanders during the 2019 cycle.
USC has also landed a quartet of players out of Florida and flipped linebacker Donovan Westmoreland from the home-state Bulldogs after he previously committed to Georgia head coach Kirby Smart and his staff.
“I wanted to hire great coaches, great people first and foremost,” Beamer told The State in May, “but then recruiting-wise, the more areas that they have been a part of the better.”
Fresh off a month in which visitors were persistent in Columbia — including a final weekend in which South Carolina staffers hosted 12 official visitors — there’s a blueprint at work.
For much of its history, South Carolina hasn’t reeled in the blue chip-level prospects at the same clip as the SEC’s most dominant programs. USC has signed six five-star recruits since 247Sports began tracking players in 1999. It also hasn’t had a class ranked higher than 15th nationally since 2010.
And while the Gamecocks haven’t quite matched the ranking talent Alabama, Georgia and Florida recruit so regularly, player development and a focus on adapting mid-level prospects are what helped the program win 11 games in three-consecutive seasons under Spurrier.
“(South Carolina) is going to be built on a similar model to Iowa State or Michigan State under Mark Dantonio where they won 11 games five years in a row,” Wiltfong explained. “You’re not necessarily beating Alabama or Georgia on the recruiting trail for guys, but you’re getting guys that are capable of developing into guys that can beat Alabama or Georgia.”
With three pledges yet to be announced, South Carolina’s 2022 class stands to grow in the coming days. Four-star tight end Oscar Delp, who was in Columbia over the weekend for his official visit, is among USC’s top uncommitted targets.
Beamer and the rest of his staff are largely headed off for vacation over the next week or so. It may not be enough to stop the first-year head coach from celebrating another recruiting win en route to his final destination.
This story was originally published June 29, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
