On April 30, South Carolina coach Will Muschamp tweeted out a “Spurs Up” alert indicating a commitment for the Gamecocks.

Wide receiver Shawn Smith of Brunswick, Ga., announced a decision for South Carolina. Smith, however, is no longer committed to USC, and apparently it wasn’t by his own decision.

“He committed and cut everybody else off,” said Smith’s coach at Brunswick High, Larry Harold. “We went back up there in July. I thought he had a good trip. They talked to the family and talked to him. We haven’t heard from South Carolina since then. He’s been trying to get in touch with them. I’ve been trying to contact them and haven’t received any phone calls back and I began to get worried. He was supposed to take an official this (past) weekend because he’s going to be an early enrollee.

“Finally, I got a coach to call me back,” Harold continued. “I’ve seen them accept several wide receiver commits in the last couple of months. I know this game and I know how it is, and once he told me they weren’t calling him back and they wouldn’t call me back I began to get real worried. Finally, they called me and basically what they did was renege on his scholarship offer and offered him a grayshirt instead, which is not going to work for him. He comes from a single parent home, he has a child and he’s already done the enrollment process. He’s going to graduate early and was looking forward to enrolling at South Carolina. This has kind of left the kid stuck out to dry.”

The 5-foot-11, 168-pound Smith had committed to the Gamecocks over Miami as a slot receiver. He was the Gamecocks’ first receiver pledge for 2017. USC later received pledges from top in-state prospects OrTre Smith and Shi Smith.

“I have tremendous respect for coach Will Muschamp,” Harold said. “I’ve known him from his time at Florida and those coaches. But this is the side of recruiting nobody knows about. There will be comments on Twitter, people bashing him, but they don’t know the other side when you have this kid you really want but I guess somebody better they feel comes along and basically the kid is hung out to dry. Now this kid has to start the recruiting process all over again. We honored his commitment and cut everybody else that was recruiting him off.

“I’m just really sour right now because when it comes to my kids, they come first,” the coach continued. “My whole thing was, if you had let us know in July or August that you after some guys that were a higher priority, it could have been better for him because he could have had other schools actively recruiting him. I’m not trying to bash South Carolina. The numbers game is what it is. But these coaches throw these offers out and this kid committed, put his whole life on hold, and now he’s stuck holding the bag. He had no other choice but to decommit.”

Smith told Scout’s Chad Simmons that he’s now considering Georgia, Louisville, Miami, Mississippi State and West Virginia.

This development could have greater affect on USC. The Gamecocks are recruiting Harold’s 2019 standout offensive lineman Warren McClendon, who happens to be the cousin of Gamecocks receivers coach Bryan McClendon.

“I’m not going to comment on that at this time,” Harold said. “I’m really hurt at this time at how they handled this situation with Shawn. I understand the numbers. I think two of the guys were from the state and they felt like they were first priority and I understand that, but give the kid, give me a call and let us know early on instead of waiting until October. He graduates in December and now we’re going to have to scramble to try to find another school for him to go to. He’s a great kid and he did what he was supposed to do. When he committed he literally shut everybody else off. And now he’s stuck holding the bag. My heart goes for him.”

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This story was originally published October 5, 2016 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Coach: USC staff left former WR commit ‘out to dry’."