In-state prospect hoping camp performance leads to Gamecocks offer

Safety Ashton Whitner of Greenville High School has offers from Syracuse, West Virginia, Coastal Carolina, Furman, Indiana, Army, Tulane, Penn, Marshall, Howard, Miami of Ohio, Jacksonville State, Princeton and Akron. From that group, he’s communicating the most with Syracuse, West Virginia, Princeton and Army.

Whitner (6-0, 188) has official visits set with Syracuse June 18 and West Virginia June 25, and those are his top two as he approaches the camp and visit month of June. Two of his camp stops will be South Carolina and Clemson, where he hopes to impress the coaches enough to earn an offer. His camp stop at USC will be June 11.

“I talked to coach (Torrian) Gray a few weeks ago, but we haven’t been constantly texting or talking or anything like that,” Whitner said. “I think once they see how I show up and show out in camp and see what they see on film and in person, then they’ll probably offer me. They were the first school to let me visit and have a good gameday experience (Alabama 2019) to see how a college game atmosphere is like.”

Clemson also has been showing enough interest in Whitner to bring him in for a camp look, and he visited for the Florida State game in 2019. An offer from the Tigers, he said, would simply blow him away.

“Childhood dream,” Whitner said. “I’ve been wanting to play for Clemson since I was about 6. That would be major. I haven’t talked to Clemson a lot. I haven’t talked to any of their coaches, but I’ve talked to one of their recruiters. I set up an unofficial visit on the day that I camp, too.”

Michigan and Tennessee also have been showing increasing interest in Whitner.

“They’ve just got to get the head coach to watch my film when they get from break, and nine times out of 10 I’ll get the offer, and we can just keep building the relationship from there,” he said.

Whitner, who also can play corner or nickel, said he also will make camp stops at Florida State, Alabama, Auburn and North Carolina. He plans to make a decision the week of his first game in late August.

Whitner is rated a three-star prospect by 247Sports and is ranked the No. 23 prospect in South Carolina for this class.