How football and the military led Landon and Gavin Samson to South Carolina
Landon Samson’s boyish laugh chimed through the phone. It’s that kind of chuckle where you’re warned to fasten your seat belt. It’s wry, filled with undertone.
His story is about to get good.
“I had the dog collar put on me one time,” South Carolina’s freshman receiver said, sighing. “Like, a shock collar.”
These are the things that happen in a household of three boys, the youngest of whom are just three-and-a-half years and four grades apart. If you’ve got siblings, you know those battles: Older sibling rags on younger sibling; younger sibling gets upset; older sibling insists they’re toughening the other up.
Rinse and repeat.
Naturally, Landon, 19, can only laugh years later when explaining how he ended up with a collar belonging to Cali, the family’s black Lab/border collie mix, around his neck while middle brother Gavin held the remote control that activated its shock feature.
“That,” Landon continued, “was not fun.”
“Orchestrated the whole thing,” Gavin, 22, quipped in a text. “I take full responsibility for breeding him to be successful.”
These are the memories that each brother holds onto in their respective homes — Landon at South Carolina as a member of the Gamecocks football program, and Gavin at Fort Benning outside Columbus, Georgia, where he’s stationed in the U.S. Army.
Soon enough, though, the two plan to reunite in Columbia.
Gavin is slated to wrap up a four-year military commitment in September. The hope is that by November he’ll walk onto the South Carolina football team alongside Landon, a three-star receiver prospect who signed with the Gamecocks as part of their 2022 class.
“I was telling their dad, ‘If you see a “G. Samson” and an “L. Samson” someday in Cola, man, that’s going to be the best day of your life,’ ” Gavin’s high school coach Brady Gunn recounted. “Hopefully, it happens.”
Football, family and enlisting in the Army
The Samson brothers grew up in the Dallas area after a move from California, where their father, Jon, spent almost 14 years as an officer in the California Highway Patrol.
Football served as a connective tissue between Landon and Gavin as their relationship matured from their youth into young adulthood.
Both boys grew up as quarterbacks before age and ability necessitated switches to receiver. Landon’s shift came in middle school, when classmate and eventual No. 1 overall recruit Quinn Ewers took the reins under center.
Gavin’s transition came later.
Gunn felt he had a potential difference-maker when Gavin transferred from Texas high-school powerhouse Southlake Carroll to Fort Worth Christian. With a trio of quarterbacks who’d already been in his system, he pitched the idea of switching Gavin to receiver.
Gavin agreed and quickly found success.
“He was just torching our defense, making crazy one-handed grabs,” Gunn said. “And I was like, ‘All right, this dude’s gonna be switching positions.’ ”
There’s always been a relatability between Gunn and Gavin. Shifting Gavin from quarterback to receiver was the first piece of that equation. Their countless talks in the offices and weight room at Fort Worth Christian added to their relationship.
So, too, did their chats about military service.
Gunn uniquely understood Gavin’s subconscious tug toward the armed forces. Gunn long considered joining the military as a kid, even landing on the football team at Navy before finishing his career at Abilene Christian.
Gavin’s own yearnings weren’t so much borne out of a childhood desire to attend West Point or Annapolis. There were thoughts here and there, sure. He enumerated them to Gunn from time to time.
But when a chance to play football with a pair of high school buddies at Harding University, a Division II school in Searcy, Arkansas, arose, Gavin pushed those initial thoughts aside.
“His decision to go to Harding, I think, was if his other two buddies didn’t go there, he wouldn’t have,” Gunn explained. “I don’t know where he would have landed, but knowing Gavin, he probably would have just picked the school that he really wanted to go to and if they didn’t offer him he would have just walked on.”
Gavin admits he struggled adjusting to college while balancing the commitment to football and all that comes with it.
Traveling the five-and-a-half hours between Searcy and the family’s home in the Dallas suburbs just about every weekend served as a momentary escape — at least until Monday rolled around.
By the time July 23, 2019, came, Gavin made up his mind to enlist in the Army. He figured it might help him mature in a more regimented environment.
The process was simple. Gavin simply strolled into his local recruiter’s office, signed on the dotted line and began readying his mind for his deployment to basic training shortly thereafter.
Then came telling his family.
“I just wasn’t right at the time — right in the head,” Gavin said. “I guess I needed some real-world experience.”
Military experience and landing at South Carolina
Gavin Samson can’t reveal too many specifics about his service record. Layers of security clearance prevent that.
He’s done two separate four-month combat deployments but can’t elaborate on those exact locations or events. His rank also remains undisclosed.
What you can know is Gavin is an Army Ranger. Special operations. A team leader.
Impressive, right? Landon Samson and Quinn Ewers always thought so.
“Him and Quinn felt like little patriots coming out of high school thinking about following in my footsteps at one point,” Gavin said through a laugh. “I was like, ‘Give college your shot first. Please don’t throw away your scholarship for this.’ ”
While Gavin has been away, Landon evolved into an sought-after Division I football prospect at Southlake Carroll.
Alongside Ewers, he racked up 1,293 yards and notched 15 touchdowns on 75 catches as a junior. Landon added another 864 yards and 13 scores in his final season with the Dragons despite playing four fewer games than the year prior.
He committed to South Carolina in June 2021, his stock only rising in the time since. He’s rated a four-star prospect by Rivals. His 247Sports national ranking has jumped 363 spots in that span.
Those close to the Gamecocks program think he’s one of a handful of freshmen who could make an impact immediately.
For now, he’s settling into the routine of college life.
“I’ve never been away from my family. I don’t really know anyone up there. So I’m nervous for that aspect,” Landon said ahead of move-in. “But I’m excited because I get to go be an adult. I get to go live my life and I get to do something that I’ve always wanted to do ever since I was a little kid.”
‘It’s gonna be hard to say goodbye’
Gavin enjoyed his Memorial Day weekend like so many others — on the golf course.
He laughs when asked how the round at Fort Benning’s on-base course went. The answer: not the most efficient. That comes with bringing a handful of Army buddies whose golf abilities aren’t quite ready for the pro tour.
“We have some not-as-good athletes out there swinging the golf club,” Gavin quipped. “So we definitely have to scramble.”
Nearing the end of the almost 35-minute chat, he concedes he’s started to think more about rejoining civilian life. It’s not so much anxiety as it is facing another looming reality.
Rejoining civilian life has its quirks, Gavin explains. The discipline and tight-knit nature of the military are so functionally different from the day-to-day lives of the general public that there’s an inherent adjustment.
“Impulse decision led to a happy career for me,” Gavin said. “Like I said, it’s gonna be hard to say goodbye. I love the service. I love what I do.”
Landon just wrapped up his second week of offseason workouts in Columbia. Assuming all goes to plan, Gavin will join him at USC in five months or so.
Gavin notes he hasn’t had contact with the South Carolina coaching staff yet. Nothing, at least as of now, has been promised to Landon either.
Since revealing his hopes to land on an SEC football roster, Gavin joked that his Army buddies have asked more frequently to get outside and throw a football around in their free time. That said, there’s still the chance his arrival at South Carolina could be delayed.
A combat deployment can come with little heads up.
“The world is always super unstable,” Gavin said. “That’s one of the things, it’s the, ‘What if we go somewhere and I have to go with my boys?’ I can’t leave them behind on something like that.”
This story was originally published June 8, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
