Big Football Recruiting Weekend on Deck for USC

This weekend is scheduled to be South Carolina’s biggest football recruiting weekend leading up to National Signing Day on February 1st. The Gamecocks have 23 total verbal commitments for the 2012 recruiting cycle, and four of the commitments have already enrolled into school this semester. The four early enrollees are OL Brock Stadnik, OL Clayton Stadnik, TE Jerrell Adams and TE Kelvin Rainey. Those four prospects did not sign LOIs, Letters-of-Intent, and thus do not count towards the 25 signed LOIs statute that the SEC put into effect this year.

As of right now, the Gamecocks coaches are expecting 16 official visitors on campus beginning Friday/Saturday and running through Sunday/Monday. Of the official visitors at USC this weekend, 15 of the prospects are committed to Carolina, while one official visitor is uncommitted. Eight USC commitments, WR Jody Fuller, OL Brock Stadnik, OL Cody Waldrop, OL Clayton Stadnik, TE Jerrell Adams, DB Chaz Elder, DB Jordan Diggs and TE Kelvin Rainey have already visited the Gamecocks campus officially.

Here is a list of planned visitors to USC’s campus this weekend:

Verbal Commitments in BOLD along with home state
1. DE Darius English (Georgia)
2. RB Mike Davis (Georgia): USC leads UGA and Clemson with Lorenzo Ward as lead recruiter
3. LB T.J. Holloman (Georgia)
4. RB Kendric Salley (South Carolina)
5. OL Mason Zandi (South Carolina)
6. K Nick St. Germain (Georgia)
7. LB Kaiwan Lewis (New Jersey)
8. S Kyle Fleetwood (Georgia)
9. OL Joe Harris (Georgia)
10. WR Shaq Roland (South Carolina)
11. WR Kwinton Smith (South Carolina)
12. QB Brendan Nosovitch (Pennsylvania)
13. DB Rico McWilliams (Georgia)
14. DB T.J. Gurley (Georgia)
15. DE Jhaustin Thomas (Georgia)
16. DT Carlos Hood (Georgia)

There was another in-state official visitor planned to come in this weekend, but according to TheBigSpur, Gaffney High School Wide Receiver Quinshad Davis has chosen to take an official visit to Wake Forest instead of USC. Earlier this week, USC’s coaches informed Davis that he had a “firm” scholarship offer to come into the program in August 2012 and not have to be a greyshirt candidate for January 2013. A greyshirt candidate is a high school prospect that does not sign an LOI in February with his college choice; the player sits out the upcoming football season and then enrolls into the university the following calendar year without signing a Letter-of-Intent. USC has already discussed this option with at least one current Gamecock verbal commitment.

Davis hails from former Gamecocks record-setting wide receiver Sidney Rice’s alma mater, Gaffney HS, and had favored USC earlier in the process, but with Davis’ hesitation to commit early to South Carolina and subsequently three wide receivers committing to USC for this recruiting cycle, the late non-greyshirt offer from Carolina might have allowed out-of-state schools like Wake Forest, UNC and Tennessee to inch ahead of South Carolina for Davis’ services come National Signing Day. IMHO, Wake Forest University is the biggest hurdle for the Gamecocks securing the Gaffney product’s signature as we move closer and closer to February 1st. Davis could still set an official visit to USC but just not this weekend as of right now.

Go Gamecocks!