Shane Beamer: Recruiting class excited to get to South Carolina and help
South Carolina, sitting at 2-5 with a road trip to Texas A&M on deck, has not had the season football coach Shane Beamer expected. It’s also not likely the year that the Gamecocks’ 16-man 2024 recruiting class expected when they joined the Gamecock family either.
But after each game, win or lose, Beamer knows he’s going to hear from his wife, his mom, and a certain member of that recruiting class.
“Without a doubt, within the first three people I hear from, is always a certain quarterback that’s committed to us,” Beamer said Tuesday during his weekly press conference. “Like before the game’s even over, I think, I get a text from him.”
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Due to NCAA rules, Beamer cannot mention unsigned prospects by name but he was clearly speaking of South Carolina quarterback commit Dante Reno.
The Gamecocks’ four-star, longtime commit has in many ways served as the face of the class, helping the staff not only recruit the group to Columbia but also keep them on the same page.
And his postgame texts serve as a reminder to Beamer that the class appears committed to the cause.
“It’s been positive,” Beamer continued. “I think those guys realize how close we are, and we talk to them every week. I mean, we’re on the phone with recruits. I was on the phone with a recruit last night, late in my office. Wednesday nights we sit up here as a staff and just talk, FaceTime recruits for an hour as a staff. And they’ve been good.”
The 2024 class, currently ranked No. 19 in the country in the On3 Team Recruiting Rankings, features nine prospects rated four stars or higher. That number balloons to 13 when considering prospects who are rated a four-star on at least one recruiting media service.
As GamecockCentral and On3 have previously mentioned, four-star tight end Michael Smith and three-star cornerback Braydon Lee are two South Carolina commits being heavily pursued by other schools.
But Beamer feels good about the overall class staying together and potentially making an early impact.
“I get it, it’s a long time to signing day, but those guys, a lot of them have been (at games),” Beamer added. “They were at the Florida game two weeks ago, and they saw how that game went. And they know some of the issues that we have right now. They see the young players that are out there playing. I think the message that I’ve gotten from all of the recruiting class is how excited they are to get here, to start helping us on the field as well.”
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That’s the exact message that South Carolina four-star linebacker commit Wendell Gregory had when GC caught up with him this week.
The Marietta (Ga.) Walton standout says he’s firmly locked in with the Gamecocks.
“It’s been a rough season for them so far. I mean, that can change instantly. It’s not their best year they’re going to have right now, but, that’s exactly why (we) are coming in to change the program around,” he said.
“I just feel like, especially on the defensive side of South Carolina, they need a lot of key players. These key players that are coming in are going to change South Carolina around for sure.”
