South Carolina building strong identity through recruiting

Times are changing for South Carolina. Players from all over the country want to come play in Columbia.

And there’s proof in the pudding. South Carolina’s 2023 recruiting class, featuring one five-star and 11 four-stars, ranked 16th in the country.

“It was huge and that goes right back to the energy part that I think people feel across the country about South Carolina football,” Shane Beamer told On3’s JD PicKell on The Hard Count. “I mean, it was already high because we had just signed our highest-rated recruiting class in over 10 years, I believe. And we’ve had some success on the field during the regular season, so the excitement level was already high.”

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Plenty of talented recruits signed with South Carolina but none stood out more than Nyckoles Harbor. The five-star athlete picked the Gamecocks over Oregon, Michigan, Maryland and Miami.

He became the first five-star commitment since Beamer arrived. Not to mention, ESPN broadcasted his decision, allowing the world to see the Gamecocks take center stage.

“When he decided to become a Gamecock, it resonated with a lot of people and most importantly, it resonated with other high school prospects that saw that,” Beamer said. “I mean the minute that Nyck committed, I got a ton of 2024 kids that are texting my phone, excited about it as well.”

From the looks of it, South Carolina’s 2024 recruiting class is in good shape so far. Five four-star players have already committed. Headlining that group is quarterback Dante Reno, who committed first in July 2022.

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Reno has been pleased with what the Gamecocks are doing from a recruiting standpoint.

“The standard set by the 2023 class is really high right now,” Reno told GamecockCentral. “They’re 16th nationally and our (2024) class is seventh. From what the recruits are telling me and other kids who are committed in our class they want to join too. They want to help change the whole culture and everything at South Carolina. They want to be the first South Carolina recruiting class to be top-ten or top-five. A lot of the guys in the 2024 class want to come in and change everything with the 2023 class and 2022 class. Everyone that I’m talking to and who they’re recruiting are bought in.”

A lot of what South Carolina has been able to do also comes down to culture. For instance, recruits have loved seeing Beamer and the team have fun with the entertaining videos.

This was especially true when Justin King posted the infamous “Turn My Swag On” video. On Twitter, it has surpassed more than 2.4 million views.

“We did that video literally 20 minutes before I got on a plane to fly to Atlanta for SEC Media Day. We finished the video and Justin posted it and tweeted it out. And the amount of messages I had on my phone within five minutes was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is really, really big deal,'” Beamer said. Even still to this day, recruits will visit us and are here for the first time, and they’ll pull their phones out and some of them have it on their phone as a screensaver.”

While the skits might take Beamer out of his comfort zone, he doesn’t mind it. So long as it impacts the players that he’s recruiting.

“This is a really demanding and stressful job, there’s no question about it. But I love what I get to do each day and the people I get to do it with. I’m going to be me. Not trying to be someone I’m not and have fun as long as I’m here,” Beamer said.

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