Quick Slants with Uva: Welcome to June

This week on Quick Slants we hit on a little bit of everything. After all, June isn’t only a month where talking season picks up but recruiting does as well.

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1- Prime time games

South Carolina learned earlier this week that they’ll be playing two of their first three games on national television. The first will be Week 1 when they play UNC in Charlotte under the lights on ABC at 7:30 p.m. The second will be Week 3 when they play at Georgia at 3:30 p.m. on CBS.

My biggest takeaway from this is that South Carolina isn’t being viewed as an afterthought heading into the 2023 season. Sure, they still have a long ways to go before we’re talking about them competing for an SEC title or even an SEC East crown. But, they’ve progressed in each of Shane Beamer’s first two years. On top of that, USC climbed 12 spots with their 2023 recruiting class to finish 16th and are currently ranked No.6 with their class of 2024.

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While there was a buzz about this team going around Columbia last year, that buzz didn’t really get the attention of people on a national level. Not until South Carolina was able to beat Tennessee and Clemson to close out the 2022 regular season. Because of that progress the buzz this year is starting to expand and people outside of the state are starting to take notice.

2- Dante Reno

Last Friday, the 2024 Gamecock commit was invited to the Elite 11 Finals in Los Angeles, CA. Not only is this a tremendous honor for the consensus four-star quarterback but one that will bring more positive attention to South Carolina’s program as a whole.

But it’s also led to many over the past week asking questions as to why Reno isn’t rated a four-star by On3. It’s a fair question. Especially when he’s just one of 20 quarterbacks in the nation to be invited to participate in this elite competition. That along with the fact that every other recruiting website has him rated as a four-star. But like I said on the forum at the end of last week, I have no idea how On3, or other recruiting sites for that matter, decide which players have X-amount of stars or what they’re rankings are. It’s not something I deal with based on my job with the company. What I do expect is Reno to see a bump from On3 with a strong showing at the Elite 11. That’s just a hunch. So be patient.

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3- Quality on the rise

June has finally arrived. And like we’ve mentioned many times in recent weeks, this has been the month that Beamer and USC has done most of their damage (in a good way) when it comes to recruiting. 14 of South Carolina’s signees over the past two years have committed in the month of June. Not to mention, an additional seven in July and August just last year. You can add one more to that count if you include Reno, who won’t be able to officially sign until December.

The biggest difference this year compared to years past is that USC has already landed nine commitments in their 2024 class. Not only are the Gamecocks ranked No.6 in recruiting for the class of 2024 but they currently are ranked No.2 when it comes to blue chip ratio (committed four and five stars). The only team that is ahead of them is Alabama.

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