Behind the scenes: Gamecocks National Signing Day

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South Carolina had a massive day, earning the pledge of 2023 5-star ATH Nyck Harbor. Additionally, Elijah Caldwell, a 3-star WR from Rock Hill, South Carolina, signed with the Gamecocks.

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Beamer details whirlwind ending of Nyckoles Harbor recruitment

By Chris Clark

Shane Beamer tossed and turned in his bed throughout the early hours of Wednesday morning.

At one point, he woke up and seemed to recall receiving an unsettling audio message from five-star target Nyckoles Harbor. He had listened to it once, then eventually fallen back asleep.

He later woke again, and Beamer could not find the message any longer on his phone.

Had he dreamed that Harbor was not going to be heading to South Carolina?

Or, more accurately, had he a nightmare?

“Then (Director of Player Personnel) Taylor Edwards he told me that they (audio messages) disappear,” Beamer said with a laugh on Wednesday morning, during his signing day press conference.

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The message, which Beamer said was received at 2:57 a.m., was indeed real.

Harbor was set to announce his choice in several hours. And it now looked like Beamer and his staff now had work to do to to sign him later in the day.

“It wasn’t trending in the right direction, I’ll say that,” Beamer said. “Obviously didn’t sleep after that, laying in bed, trying to figure out what was going on. At 6:20 or 6:30 I got on the phone with Sterling Lucas. From that point it was just a back and forth, Sterling talking to the high school coach, Sterling talking to the parents, Jody Wright, myself trying to reach out to the parents, trying to reach out to Nyck.”

While things appeared dire for South Carolina early in the morning, Beamer and his staff members were able to stabilize the situation. To do so, they leaned on the strength of the longstanding relationships that had been built along the way.

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Said Beamer: “He finally called me, he FaceTimed me mid-morning and we talked a little bit. Coming out of that conversation, I really felt like this is where his heart was and this is where he wanted to be. It was just a matter of telling everyone that and making the decision and going with it.”

The conversations were not over from there, leaving Beamer and others involved in Harbor’s recruitment to sweat it out as the nationally televised announcement approached.

Sometime in the noon hour, there was a final conversation between Harbor and his future head football coach.

I walked outside right by the window and he was on the phone with his mom,” said Beamer. “I said ‘how you doing’ and he said ‘good’. I said ‘I’m not good at all right now. You’re stressing me out’. We talked a little bit more and that’s when I had a really good feeling he was going to become a Gamecock then.”

Along the way, Beamer had some help from current Gamecocks. Players like Pup Howard, Zahbari Sandy, Desmond Umeozulu, and Tree Babalade, and Monteque Rhames have all been cited as recent signees that played a role in helping secure Harbor.

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Said Beamer: “I was on a group text with a lot of those guys. I didn’t have to tell them anything, they’re already doing it. To have a personality like Pup who’s connected, I felt Pup was like my psychological counselor this morning. He said we’re good coach. They’ve been awesome.”

Once Beamer and his staff tuned into the announcement – a moment captured by Justin King and his creative team – they had a good sense of what was coming, and it was special.

“To see him put that hat on was a pretty emotional moment for me,” Beamer admitted. “We fought our butts off on this one. Certainly with what other schools are able to offer, I guess, there’s a lot more you have to battle with. We’re as well suited as anybody to get in there and win those battles, without a doubt. At the end of the day, it still comes back to people and relationships and who you want to be around the next four years.”

At the time of his press conference, held in Columbia at 2:00 p.m. EST, Beamer had not yet spoken with Harbor after the decision was revealed.

“Now that he’s signed, I’ll call and probably get on him pretty good about the stress he’s brought me the last twelve hours,” Beamer joked.

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