6-foot-7 Irish rugby player signs with South Carolina football
On Monday, The Athletic published a story about a mysterious prospect that college football coaches were fawning over. It was titled: “He’s the hottest football recruit in the nation — and he’s never played in a game.”
It explained the tale of 6-foot-7, 295-pound Neff Giwa, a Nigerian/Irish rugby player who went semi-viral for a three-second clip of him doing offensive line pass sets. Miami was the first to offer on March 16. Plenty more Power 4 programs quickly followed suit and, in just a matter of days, Giwa took visits to Michigan State, Tennessee, Clemson, South Carolina and Miami.
Pretty soon, the 20-year-old Giwa turned from a raw prospect to a mythical figure ... which perhaps explains where he chose to attend college.
On Sunday, South Carolina announced Giwa signed with the Gamecocks football team. The Athletic reported earlier in the day that Giwa will sign with the Gamecocks. The school that currently boasts three of the most freakish athletes in college football — LaNorris Sellers, Dylan Stewart and Nyck Harbor — just added to the lore.
Giwa will play offensive line for the Gamecocks, who’ve remade that room with a new position coach and numerous transfer. He’ll join as a Class of 2026 recruit, meaning Giwa will enroll at USC this summer and be on this fall’s team.
The pledge comes after Giwa made his second visit to Columbia on Monday, meeting with Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer. And, well, it seems South Carolina didn’t want Giwa to leave the football complex without getting him on board.
Per The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman (who wrote the story on Giwa), “South Carolina wanted to give Neff Giwa a huge NIL deal so he’d commit yesterday and cancel his Miami visit,” but Giwa insisted on visiting Miami because the Hurricanes were the first to offer him.
In the end, it didn’t make a difference.
What the Gamecocks are getting in Giwa is hard to know. But it should be known that Giwa is a part of PPI Recruits, an organization run by former UMass defensive tackle Brandon Collier that helps international athletes land scholarships on American college football teams.
Collier has placed over 150 kids from 25 countries at various college programs, including Justin Okoronkwo, a native of Germany who began his career as a linebacker at Alabama and started for the Gamecocks last season.
“He’s so tall, but he actually had good leverage,” Collier told The Athletic of Giwa. “He’s also got this toughness about him. He’s like a fighter. He’s got something inside him that I haven’t seen from many kids.”
This story was originally published March 29, 2026 at 11:12 AM.
