Insider Report – wrapping up an important recruiting weekend
With a junior recruiting cookout as well as key official visitors in town, it was a key recruiting weekend for the South Carolina Gamecocks.
In this edition, we recap how things went with priority uncommitted targets and where things may go in the next few weeks.
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— Shane Beamer issued another #WelcomeHome via Twitter this weekend, which means the Gamecocks now have two commitments unrevealed from the 2024 class.
There’s a chance that both could be public within the next three weeks.
— There was a thought that Savannah defensive back David Bucey may exit the weekend as a public member of the Gamecocks’ 2024 recruiting class, but he said after his visit wrapped that he was going to wait “a little longer.”
South Carolina’s in great shape here, unsurprisingly.
Wes Mitchell and I both have high-confidence On3 RPM picks in favor of USC in for Bucey.
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— Wide receiver target Jonathan Paylor had not been on campus in Columbia for a while but returned on Friday to spend his allotted 48 hours in Columbia.
Exiting the trip, multiple sources are in agreement that it could not have gone better for the four-star out of North Carolina.
Paylor, who said the trip was “amazing from start to finish”, plans to release a top five on Monday, essentially a formality at this point.
NC State and North Carolina are the biggest competitors to the Gamecocks, but it’s South Carolina who appears to be in the best position.
Wes Mitchell had previously submitted an On3 RPM pick for USC here. On Monday morning, I added one of my own.
Paylor tentatively wants to make a decision later in July.
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— The remaining two uncommitted visitors who visited this weekend are subjects of recruiting battles between the Gamecocks and traditional blue-bloods.
Mississippi athlete Daniel Hill‘s official visit to Columbia was much-anticipated. After it, we picked up much of the same “it couldn’t have gone better” talk, just like we did with Paylor.
USC, as has been well-documented, very much wants Hill as part of this class. Conversations with the staff – and the group of USC commitments who were also in town – centered around him being a missing piece to the 2024 cycle.
It looks like Hill is going to render a decision in July, although he left the door open to possibly take some unofficial visits this season for games.
The Gamecocks are battling Alabama here, which has wanted Hill all along but seems to have tried to turn up the heat even more as of late.
He took his official visit to Tuscaloosa last weekend, then followed that up with a camp visit in which he worked out as a quarterback that Tuesday.
According to all the feedback gathered after the official to Columbia, South Carolina should be considered to have the edge over the Crimson Tide.
My previously-submitted On3 RPM pick in USC’s favor remains in place.
The days leading up to Hill’s decision could be tense, given the competition here. It’s not over, but South Carolina helped itself a lot in reinforcing everything that Hill loves about the program.
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— Let’s close the book for today with more on five-star Dylan Stewart.
Stewart has an opportunity to become an On3 “Five-star Plus” prospect, meaning a player who’s ranked as a five-star on every major recruiting service. As things stand, he’s missed it by just one spot; ESPN has 18 five-stars and Stewart is ranked number 19 by that network.
He is currently ranked by On3 as the nation’s number one overall prospect, and the On3 Industry Ranking – a weighed average of all four major services – has him at number seven overall.
In other words, this is a big-time prospect. The competition has also been big-time for his services.
The consensus exiting the weekend is that South Carolina and Ohio State are the main two programs to watch here. Based on our feedback, there’s reason to believe that the Gamecocks hold the edge.
Based on Stewart’s comments to On3’s Chad Simmons recently, it looks like it’s more likely he will make a decision before his senior season.
On Monday morning, I submitted a new On3 RPM pick for Stewart for South Carolina.
Like Hill, this is one in which USC will have to hold on and close it out. Sterling Lucas has done a great job building a relationship with Stewart and his family, and this trip to Columbia was the latest in a string of stops that Stewart’s made during the recruiting process.
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