Hard work on the recruiting trail paying dividends for Gamecocks

South Carolina did not have the on-field result it was hoping for over the weekend, but the Gamecocks continued to build momentum in recruiting, landing the top player in the state in wide receiver OrTre Smith.

The Wando star chose USC over Clemson, North Carolina and Georgia and marked the fifth-straight four-star commitment for South Carolina.

The Gamecocks landed Smith thanks to a relentless pursuit from Will Muschamp and his staff, despite Smith’s mom being a former student-athlete at Clemson.

The Tigers’ interest in Smith wavered at times with Clemson making a hard push late, while Muschamp and USC recruited Smith constantly after arriving in Columbia.

“Things fell in place the right way for them,” Woody Wommack, a Southeast recruiting analyst for Rivals, said. “It doesn’t really matter what the factors are as long as you end up winning it, and South Carolina gets the win on this one and that’s all that matters... That’s a credit to the South Carolina staff for identifying him and really making him a priority as soon as they got there.”

USC’s commitment to working hard on the recruiting trail is a big reason why the Gamecocks are beating programs that are currently in the top 25 and expected to compete for conference and national titles this season.

Since Aug. 1 South Carolina has landed commitments from five of the top 250 players in the country, according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings, which consists of rankings from all of the major recruiting services.

South Carolina’s recruiting class is ranked 11^th in the nation, ahead of ranked SEC teams such as Tennessee, Florida, Texas A&M and Ole Miss.

“Bringing a new vibe and hunger spills over to recruits. They really like to see that,” Wommack said. “They have some young guys on the staff who have really been able to connect well with the players. Travaris Robinson is a dynamic recruiter. People love him. And a lot of the kids love Muschamp too.”

In addition to OrTre, South Carolina has the No. 2 player in the state committed in receiver Shi Smith of Union County.

Landing OrTre and Shi could help the Gamecocks with some of the top players from South Carolina in 2018, including the No. 2 overall player in the country in defensive lineman Xavier Thomas, as well as four-star quarterback Dakereon Joyner, who attended OrTre’s announcement ceremony on Sunday.

“OrTre has been to national events. He went to the (Rivals Five-Star Challenge) twice. He was at The Opening. His team was playing in the finals at both of those events and he was a big reason why. Guys know him. They know that he can play,” Wommack said. “Some of the young guys like Xavier Thomas, Joyner and some other playmakers really like South Carolina.”

In total the Gamecocks have eight in-state commits for 2017, as well as five commits from Georgia, five from North Carolina and three from Florida.

USC has landed the No. 5 player from Georgia in Jamyest Williams and the No. 2 player from North Carolina in Hamsah Nasirildeen in addition to the top two players from South Carolina.

“When we saw South Carolina having success they were getting the top players in the state and beating out other SEC teams. That’s what they did with (OrTre) Smith,” Wommack said. “When you can get some good in-state guys and more importantly go out-of-state and get some talent, I think that’s the key… It’s not just numbers but there’s a lot of talent there as well.”

This story was originally published September 12, 2016 at 5:37 PM with the headline "Hard work on the recruiting trail paying dividends for Gamecocks."