Brandon McIlwain relieved but raring to go

South Carolina quarterback commitment Brandon McIlwain is spending the holidays in New York City with his family, and it’s a chance for him to get lost in the Big Apple for a few days.

One he arrives in Columbia next month, hiding won’t be an option.

McIlwain, from of Newtown, Pa., announced Thursday he will enroll in school in January, bypassing the Major League Baseball Draft for now. That opportunity will come up again in 2018.

For now, McIlwain just wants to be a college student and a two-sport athlete with the Gamecocks.

“It’s a relief and it’s also exciting,” McIlwain said Friday. “I knew two days ago and told the coaches that day. I took the night to talk to my parents about it and make sure it’s 100 percent.”

McIlwain made his official visit to USC last weekend and spent a lot of time with the coaches and saw the plans Will Muschamp has for him and the program.

“They showed us all a really bright future for the program,” McIlwain said. “Coach Muschamp has an awesome plan for the program. It’s something that’s exciting and that I want to be a part of, the new era, the cocky new era. I talked to my parents about the pros and cons of graduating early and the many options that I had, and I decided that to reach that goal and to reach what I want to do, the best option is to graduate early and go in January.”

McIlwain said he had three meetings with baseball scouts this week to try to get all the information he could from their standpoint.

“I just tried to get as much information as possible so I could make an informed decision,” he said. “Football is my passion. There’s a lot more that goes into it, the college experience, getting my education. Those things are very important to me as well. While I love football and football is sort of my passion, football is the sport that I like the best. I do like baseball, too, but at this point there is no way I could give up football and just completely stop playing. The opportunity at South Carolina is great. I’m a competitor and I want to be able to go in and compete as much as I can from the start and the way that I can do that is by graduating early.”

McIlwain said he will jump right into baseball on Jan. 11 because there’s not much going on with football at that time. He said the coaches have a plan for him that will allow him to bounce back and forth between his sports as needed.

“If I’m at the point where I can contribute in baseball and I can help the baseball team and it’s a big game, I would want to put my time in and help the baseball team,” McIlwain said. “If I’m not doing too much with the baseball team at the moment, then I’ll definitely be at the football practice. They (the coaches) will do a good job and I’ll trust in them and they’ll figure out which I need to be at where it’s kind of more important for me to be.”

By entering school in January and starting baseball, McIlwain will be eligible for the draft in the summer of 2018 meaning he might only play two seasons of football with the Gamecocks. Of course, that’s all just speculation at this point and not something McIlwain cares to dwell on.

“I don’t think that’s anything that can be predicted at this point,” he said. “There’s so much that happens throughout two, three or four years of college where there’s more development. That’s a lot of reps and a lot of snaps and a lot of at bats in baseball and football. It’s not something I’ve thought of because I love playing both sports and I want to play them both for as long as I can and I feel eventually the sports will force me to decide.”

McIlwain said he plans to sign his financial aid agreement with USC next week.

This story was originally published December 18, 2015 at 10:00 PM.