Shane Beamer denies report that USC offered ‘huge NIL deal’ to lure Irish recruit
In the new age of NIL and recruiting, South Carolina football has found itself at the center of a unique story.
The Gamecocks signed international offensive line prospect Neff Giwa on Sunday. Giwa, a 6-foot-8, 295-pound Irish rugby player who’s never played football before, gained attention due to his large frame and athletic skillset.
USC won his commitment over programs like Miami, North Carolina and others. The 20-year-old will join the team for the 2026 season.
In USC’s recruitment of Giwa, which included a visit to Columbia last week, a report emerged from The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman that USC had offered Giwa a “huge NIL deal” to commit to the Gamecocks on the spot and skip a visit to the University of Miami.
Giwa did end up visiting Miami and ultimately committed to USC anyway. But Gamecock coach Shane Beamer said at a press conference Tuesday that the report was false.
“There was a post on social media about how we didn’t want to let him out of the building, we were just throwing all this money at him to keep him from going somewhere else. That wasn’t true,” Beamer said. “We were trying to keep him from going somewhere else, because he sat in my office, he told me how much he loves this place and he told me that from the first time he was here.”
Beamer said Giwa called him from the airport after his last visit and told him he intended to sign with the Gamecocks.
“This wasn’t just a ‘Hey, we got a bunch of money left over. Let’s just throw it all at the Irish soccer player,’ because that’s not the case at all,” Beamer said. “He really, truly loved it here.”
Giwa is represented by PPI Recruits, a placement program for international football recruits. Brandon Collier, the founder of PPI, posted to his X (formerly Twitter) account on Tuesday that Giwa turned down more money from other programs to sign with USC.
“Neff turned down significantly more from other contenders to sign at South Carolina because of the time he had with Coach Beamer and Coach (Clements),” Collier wrote in the post. “Nothing about money was his reason for choosing the gamecocks…. If y’all only knew this wasn’t even in the ballpark of some others.”
Beamer said he hopes Giwa will join the team by the time USC’s summer semester begins on May 26.
“This summer will be really, really key for everybody on our team to develop, but it’ll be really critical for his development in the months of, whenever he gets here, let’s say May, June, July, as we lead into August,” Beamer said. “I need to find out the exact day he’s coming. I hope May, because a lot of our guys will be around here in May, certainly in the summertime and when summer school starts, which is the day after Memorial Day.”
This story was originally published March 31, 2026 at 3:00 PM.