Inside look at Jordan Burch’s ceremony and the ‘big teddy bear’ at center of it all
What looked like a possible hint at five-star recruit Jordan Burch’s commitment ceremony pointed to the school he ended up choosing.
But the new South Carolina cap with the tag still on in the back pocket of Burch’s uncle Brian wasn’t the giveaway some observers thought, even as he put on the hat while milling in the front row of the Wednesday ceremony Hammond High School.
At one point, there had been a plan for members of the family to wear different hats from the schools he was considering. That fell by the wayside at some point or another, but Brian Burch still had his.
Instead, one of the quietest high-profile recruitments in recent memory ended quickly and quietly. A few Hammond coaches and administrators spoke about Burch. He went on ESPN, seemed to need less that 30 seconds to reach into a Christmas present box in front of him and pull out the South Carolina hat.
He said a few quick words, came off the stage and, as he had for most of his recruitment, declined to talk about things.
The big man (6-foot-5, 265 pounds) floated around the gym for photos with family, teammates, friends. He seemed to be soaking it all in, maybe a little interested in reaching the end to that rigmarole.
And then, with Gamecocks cap still on and an all-black dressy look, the quiet five-star in the social media age slipped away.
Burch and his ‘huge heart’
Jackson Muschamp has been Burch’s teammate for three years. The quarterback and defensive end even shared the same side of the ball at times, as Muschamp played safety as a sophomore and Burch dabbled in offense at several spots.
Muschamp’s father, Will, has been recruiting Burch for at least as long as they’ve been teammates, but the younger Muschamp never really tried to sway Burch to his dad’s team. And Wednesday he didn’t know what was coming.
“I had no idea,” Jackson Muschamp said.
How about Alex Huntley, a partner on the defensive line with Burch and fellow blue-chip member of the Gamecocks class?
“When he put the hat on is when I was like, ‘Oh shoot, he just committed South Carolina,’ ” Huntley said. “And that’s when I started waving my Sandstorm towel, going all crazy because that’s the first time I knew.”
All the folks who had brought their South Carolina gear, they were just hoping — in a battle with LSU, Georgia, Alabama and Clemson.
To hear folks around Hammond tell it, there’s a Jordan Burch the world doesn’t see. This is, in part, because he doesn’t reveal much publicly. And it matches his personality.
“What most people would know about him is that he’s really good with little kids,” Hammond headmaster Chris Angel said. “He’s a big teddy bear and they enjoy being around him. He is quiet and reserved. But when you really get to know him and he loosens up, he’s very thoughtful and very caring. He has a huge heart.”
Burch didn’t come to Hammond until after his freshman year. That’s not always the easiest transition, especially for a quiet kid, coming into a community where some of the bonds and friendships stretch back years.
Hammond welcomed him, but it took a little bit to adapt, to get to that loosening-up point.
“At the beginning, it was kind of funny. He was a shy dude,” Huntley said. “He didn’t really talk so it was a rough start getting him into everything because it’s a different place here. But once he got into it, he really became family and now I’m welcoming him into a new family.”
Being a top recruit in the social media age
Coaches focused on the kind of kid he was — a tremendous personality, a warmhearted leader who interacts with students of most any age. Jeff Barnes, the athletic director, pointed out that athleticism often obscured the numerous other positives Burch brought to the school and his team.
That quiet persona and the discipline with which he and his family exercised it made for an interesting contrast with the modern social-media age.
Athletes are asked to put themselves out there more and have the means to do it. No longer are there a small cadre of recruiting reporters, a couple signings on TV and a process that takes place under the radar. Players’ whims, small swings, little comments and tweets can often spark uproar from strangers who see them less as individuals and more as just a football player.
But Burch sidestepped a part of that. His persona as a recruited football player never really became part of the public persona. People could see him play, but he didn’t go to most high-profile camps. The part in which a players’ thoughts come out on Instagram or through hints they drop when talking to recruiting services? That just wasn’t there.
His head coach, Erik Kimrey, was impressed by how everyone went through the process, even sounding a bit like the Burch camp when he declined to answer when exactly he knew South Carolina was the choice.
“We love Jordan Burch for who he is, and our advice for him was just to be himself and go where his heart tells him to go,” Kimrey said. “Make sure that was a decision he was comfortable with.”
Angel added: “It’s a real testament to his character that he doesn’t spend so much time on social media. He just wants to be here, be with his friends, go to class, play sports and be as normal as you can be when you’re as highly recruited as he is.”
Burch quiet to the end
There’s something notable about the way the world doesn’t know the “teddy bear,” in part because he doesn’t show it, and in part because even if he did it would come up after the deluge of questions about what he liked about Nick Saban or where he was leaning on a given day.
The secrecy was so complete, the teachers in the school, folks who possess an impressive level of perceptiveness when it comes to young people, didn’t have much of a sense for it. A poll was circulated among the Hammond faculty Wednesday before the ceremony, and the results were all over the place. (South Carolina finished second.)
As the crowd gathered in Hammond’s gymnasium, several players and coaches were sequestered in the weight room looking down onto the floor. Burch looked down a few times, but mostly kept himself out of sight.
“We were all trying to get a little scoop, but he kept it really close to the vest,” Hammond defensive line coach Jay Frye said. “Whatever decision he made we would have been happy, but there are a lot of Gamecocks here who were happy to see the decision he made.”
Another moment that felt like a giveaway, even though it wasn’t, came with a detail Huntley divulged.
Sure, he said didn’t know Burch’s choice right up until the moment everyone else did, but Huntley and others had already added Burch to the group chat for committed Gamecock recruits.
“We put him in it a long time ago,” Huntley said. “So we could always be like, ‘Jordan, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon. But now it’s like official. We’ll put a couple recruits in there who haven’t committed yet, try to get them to commit. Not all have; luckily he did.”
So in the end, Wednesday wrapped that up, his place in the chat made good by his own choice.
Elsewhere in the room were a couple Muschamps. Jackson was with teammates as expected, and his mom Carol, Will Muschamp’s wife, made an appearance in the crowd.
The scene was almost a microcosm of the recruitment. There was noise, hype, national attention and all the buildup.
And in the end, the young man in the middle of it all remained soft-spoken, did his thing and let all the hubbub pass him by.
