Beamer, Gamecocks welcome back recruiting normalcy. Here’s what ahead for June
The green flag drops Tuesday on the return to normalcy for recruiting, starting the race to National Signing Day on Dec. 15 for the 2022 football class.
There have been warm-up laps for more than 14 months, ever since the NCAA sanctioned a COVID-related dead period in March of 2019. Recruiting has continued in a variety of ways, but Tuesday will be the first day of the new live period that allows for official and unofficial visits and camp stops.
For coaches and prospects, it’s a chance to meet face to face for the first time in a long time.
“Excited to welcome so many prospects and their families to our amazing campus,” first-year South Carolina coach Shane Beamer posted to Twitter on Monday.
Many schools, including South Carolina, will use June for official visits. The Gamecocks have loaded up with about 20 official visits spread out through the month — along with many more unofficial visits.
As a reminder, “official visits” are trips paid for by the school that typically last three days and two nights — no more than 48 hours. A recruit is allowed to take five official visits, and those are typically more structured in nature. An “unofficial visit” is paid for by the recruit and his family and can vary in length and in structure.
Carson Black, the Class of 2023 Nation Ford High School quarterback, posted to social media that he’ll be at USC on Tuesday for an unofficial visit.
The first official visits are scheduled for June 7 with defensive tackle Felix Hixon and running back Ramon Brown.
The Gamecocks will hold camps June 3-5 and then again June 11, 13 and 19, linemen camps and 7-on-7 events on June 17-18 and again June 24-25, then a specialist camp on June 19.
Here are the scheduled official visits for USC, which has four commitments in place for the 2022 class:
June 7
- RB Ramon Brown
- DT Felix Hixon
June 11
- RB Jaylon Glover
- ATH Sam McCall
- WR Peter Kikwata
- WR CJ Smith
- OT Ryan Brubaker
- OT Grayson Mains (commitment)
- CB Kajuan Banks (commitment)
- SAF Jy’Vonte McClendon
- LB Stone Blanton
June 18
- WR Addison Copeland
- CB Tre’Quon Fegans
June 25
- TE Oscar Delp
- CB Chris Graves
- DT Nick James
- CB Keenan Nelson
- CB Nikai Martinez
- DE Tomiwa Durojaiye
Gamecock recruiting notes
▪ USC tight end target Oscar Delp of Cumming, Georgia will take an unofficial visit to Alabama starting Tuesday. He will take an unofficial visit to Clemson on Thursday and an official visit to USC June 25. He also has official visits set with Georgia on Friday, Florida on June 11 and Michigan on June 14.
▪ Five-star defensive end Shemar Stewart (6-5 236) of Opa Locka, Florida will be at USC June 18 as part of a series of visits with several of his teammates from Monsignor Prep in Miami.
▪ Defensive end Tomiwa Durojaiye of Middletown, Delaware has set his official visit to USC for June 25. He also has Arkansas this Friday, Georgia Tech June 11 and Northwestern June 18. He will visit Rutgers unofficially June 2. He has visited USC unofficially. Kentucky was his most recent offer. His teammate is Gamecocks QB commitment Braden Davis.
▪ Class of 2024 QB Adrian Posse (6-4 205) plans to make a stop at USC June 18 as part of his June travels.
▪ USC target WR Dane Key of Lexington, Kentucky was offered by Michigan.
▪ USC offered 5-star basketball prospect Zion Cruz (6-5) of Hillside, New Jersey. He’s ranked the No. 4 combo guard nationally in the 247Sports Composite, and the No. 1 prospect in New Jersey.
▪ USC offered 6-foot-10 basketball prospect Christian Reeves of Concord, North Carolina. He also has offers from Lehigh, Tulsa, East Carolina, USF and Houston Baptist.
▪ USC offered Class of 2024 6-foot-11 basketball prospect Steven Solano of The Bronx, according to VerbalCommits.com. He also has offers from Virginia Tech, Bryant and Nebraska.
This story was originally published June 1, 2021 at 8:13 AM.