Gamecocks have a plan B at quarterback ... if necessary

New South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp is scheduled to meet Wednesday with longtime quarterback commitment Brandon McIlwain of Newtown, Pa.

McIlwain has held true to his commitment through the transition and is scheduled for his official visit this weekend. The face-to-face meeting Wednesday will go a long way in making sure he stays locked in.

“I feel good,” McIlwain said. “I’m just getting to know their philosophies and plans more.”

McIlwain, the Gatorade Player of the Year in Pennsylvania, is a key part of the Gamecocks’ 2016 class. He can graduate early and enroll in January, but has not decided on doing that yet because he’s regarded as a hot prospect for this summer’s baseball draft.

If there is a scenario in which the Gamecocks do not get McIlwain for one reason or another, where would they turn?

A strong possibility is Shrine Bowler Austin Scott of Spartanburg High. Scott, who passed for 4,664 yards and 60 touchdowns this season, met Tuesday at school with new USC assistant Bobby Bentley.

“They told my coach that if ‘what’s his name’ (McIlwain) doesn’t stay with his commitment there, I was first on their list,” Scott said. “We’ll just see what happens. We hadn’t seen each other in a long time and we were just seeing how everything was. He told that to my coach. There wasn’t much to it. I was trying to get to a workout and do all that.”

Scott’s dad, who is an assistant coach at Spartanburg, also talked with Bentley.

Scott has offers from Elon, Old Dominion, Mercer, Lehigh, Newberry and S.C. State, and he’s scheduled for an official visit to Elon in January. Scott said Bentley did not talk about an official visit with the Gamecocks during this meeting.

This story was originally published December 9, 2015 at 10:21 AM with the headline "Gamecocks have a plan B at quarterback ... if necessary."