Carolina Confidential

Carolina Confidential – presented by Herring Insurance Services – is your home for South Carolina football and recruiting insight from Gamecock Central’s Wes Mitchell.

— The month-long recruiting dead period will end this week as there’s one final “quiet period” set for July 25-July 31, which will allow prospects to visit schools one last time this summer before the colleges turn their undivided attention to preseason camp. As is the case with a lot of the recruiting verbiage, the “quiet period” is a misnomer since coaches can make contact with prospects and host them on campus, just can’t make off-campus in-person contact.

The Gamecocks’ big cookout event is set for this Friday and we’ll be putting together a list of expected visitors throughout the week and will hopefully have a full list by the end of the week.

As we’ve said before, the Gamecocks are hoping to get Washington (D.C.) Friendship Collegiate five-star EDGE Dylan Stewart back on campus for what could be the final visit before he makes his decision.

It will also be key to see if Ellaville (Ga.) Schley County four-star athlete Jalewis Solomon makes it to the campus considering how tight the battle is between South Carolina and Florida State (with Auburn also involved) as his commit date (Aug. 5) approaches. As of right now, the plan is for Solomon to be on campus.

— We are now less than a week away from Palmetto (Fla.) Cardinal Mooney three-star DB/WR Zy’Marion Lang‘s announcement (July 30).

For those who missed it, we recently wrote that Lang is a prospect we probably should have been talking about more in terms of the potential for him to be in Carolina’s class.

The 6-foot-3, 170-pounder has a final four of South Carolina, Pitt, Kansas State and USF.

Lang very rarely does interviews and has played his recruitment close to the vest but he has quietly been high on the Gamecocks for some time.

Lang has not yet taken an official visit to Columbia but will do so during or after the season if he does commit to Carolina.

As of right now, this appears to be a Gamecocks vs. Pitt battle. I have not put in a prediction yet but right now I’m leaning towards Carolina.

— South Carolina continues to get top underclassmen offensive linemen on its campus and will host Jacksonville (Fla.) Raines 2025 elite four-star offensive tackle Solomon Thomas on campus for the cookout on Friday.

— Backing up to the 2024 o-line class real quick, the primary offensive line target we are tracking right now is Hinesville (Ga.) Bradwell Institute On3 four-star OIL Elyjah Thurman, who camped with the Gamecocks this summer and earned an offer shortly after.

Carolina continues to target Thurman and will of course keep their eyes open for others but they’re also happy with the three high-quality commits they have at the position and I don’t expect them to “reach” on another high school lineman just to take one.

I do believe they’ll continue to look at older players whether that’s a JUCO or a transfer after this season to round out the class.

— South Carolina punter commitment Mason Love was one of two punters to earn an invite to the Under Armour All-America game Sunday, further solidifying his standing as one of the country’s best punters.

Since Love committed to the Gamecocks, we’ve heard quite a bit of talk from fans — only half-joking — asking if Love can throw the ball like Kai Kroeger and handle the extra responsibilities he’s brought to that position.

Without giving too much away on Carolina’s process, I can tell you that the Gamecocks absolutely thoroughly evaluate their punter prospects beyond just how far they can kick a football.

That’s not to put the expectation on Love of being the next Kroeger — but the coaches are well aware of the standard that Kroeger has set for that position and want to continue the trend of the Carolina punter being a weapon into the future.

Carolina liked Love’s versatility and athleticism (and yes, he can throw the football) as well as his fit within the program, all boxes they wanted to check before offering.

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