Shane Beamer says NIL figures never impacted Nyckoles Harbor recruitment

Shane Beamer and South Carolina got signing day started off on the right foot by landing a commitment from On3 Consensus five-star recruit, Nyckoles Harbor.

This signing led to a ton of rejoicing from the South Carolina community, including the Gamecocks’ coaching staff and even the baseball team. With that rejoicing came some people questioning if NIL played a role in recruiting Harbor to South Carolina. However, Beamer denies this.

“Frankly, there’s recruits out there that it does turn into a bidding war in a lot of ways,” Shane Beamer said.

“I won’t dodge that. That wasn’t the situation in this one and I know the losing side it’s kind of time tested or universal that that’s what everyone says, but that never came up in my conversations with Nyck at any point.”

Nyckoles Harbor did announce a partnership with Champs Sports a day before he committed to South Carolina. In the past, he also made a deal with Prospex, which deals with NFTs. Harbor holds a $356,000 NIL Valuation from On3.

“Now, let’s be real, this is an elite athlete that wants to be a doctor one day as well,” Beamer continued.

“I mean, this young man’s got a lot of opportunities in front of him and there’s certainly things that we discussed as far as South Carolina can help him reach his potential in every area as well, but nothing that, you know, when I go home and I see my wife and children tonight and I look myself in the mirror, I’m 100% proud of our character here in this program and how we did things as well, and that’ll never change.”

Shane Beamer on landing a five-star recruit

Shane Beamer is incredibly excited to have Nyckoles Harbor in the program, praising the impact a five-star recruit could have on the program.

“It’s extremely impactful. Particularly when it’s a national guy that announces on national television today like [Nyckoles] did. It resonates not just here in South Carolina put across the country — people are talking about this,” Beamer said.

“Like I said a minute ago about the number of 2024 recruits reaching out to me right now. Just a ton of messages from family, friends, whoever. I don’t think you can put it into words. It just caps off what was an already elite signing class in my mind with the group of young men that we already brought into the program that signed in December. People that don’t cover recruiting, just sports writers and the national media, talking about South Carolina football right now. It’s great publicity, so much positivity and energy out there about South Carolina football.”