Before South Carolina could start winning more games than it lost — never mind actually contending for championships — it had to win some recruiting battles within its own borders.
The Gamecocks are now doing that with consistency, and that’s the main reason they won their first SEC East championship last season and are favored to win another this season.
With the commitment of wide receiver Shaq Roland of Lexington in July, South Carolina is in position to land the No. 1-rated recruit in its state for the four consecutive year. In two of those years, that player also was the top-rated player in the country at his position: running back Marcus Lattimore in 2010 and Jadeveon Clowney this year. And in Clowney’s case, he happened to be the No. 1-rated player overall in America.
Not coincidentally, the Gamecocks have been putting a better product on the football field.
“South Carolina has excellent high school football, always has,” said South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, whose in his seventh season in Columbia. “Maybe we’re getting a few players that used to go to Clemson and Georgia and Tennessee and some of those other schools. Maybe instead of them going there, they’re coming here now, and obviously that gives us a better chance.”
That’s a fact. In the past, guys such as Clowney, a 6-foot-6, 250-pound defensive end, and Lattimore, a 6-1, 230-pound tailback, traditionally left the state. And often, some of the state’s top players landed at Georgia.
The Bulldogs plucked NFL lottery-pick wide receiver A.J. Green out of the Gamecocks’ backyard of Summerville, S.C. They procured defensive back CJ Byrd, South Carolina’s No. 1 player in 2005, out of North Augusta, S.C. NFL Pro Bowl defensive tackle Richard Seymour grew up 20 minutes from Williams-Brice Stadium in Lexington.
“They’re winning the battles for national kids in their state that traditionally might have gone somewhere else,” said Chad Simmons, a national recruiting analyst for Scout/FoxSports.com based in Atlanta. “Five, six, seven years ago, the odds of Clowney going to Alabama or Florida State or Georgia or somewhere else was very high. Lattimore probably wouldn’t have stayed at home. He had every option just like Clowney did. Same for Stephon Gilmore.
“Shaq Roland this year, the top kid in the state, is going to South Carolina. He’s one of the premier athletes on my board.
Georgia coach Mark Richt has recognized the trend. The Bulldogs lost head-to-head battles with the Gamecocks on four-star offensive tackle Brandon Shell of Goose Creek, S.C., this past year. They went head-to-head on Lattimore in 2010 and Alshon Jeffery and Ace Sanders before that.
The Bulldogs never got into the mix with Clowney, who chose the Gamecocks over Alabama.
“[Clowney and Lattimore] just happened to be two of the best in the country at their positions in the nation, not just in their state,” Richt said. “That was huge for them. I’ve heard Coach Spurrier mention how important that has been for them to nail down those kinds of guys because there has been some history of them losing them. Also, with the success that Lattimore had individually and South Carolina had as a team, I’m sure helped them get Jadeveon in the house, too. Success usually breads success. But we won’t quit recruiting South Carolina guys, that’s for sure.”
So what has been the difference? Spurrier says, commitment, plain and simple.
“You’ve got to build facilities,” Spurrier said. “I think seven or eight years ago we were near the bottom of the SEC in facilities. Our athletic director Eric Hyman was hired about seven years ago, and we’ve got some boosters here. We’ve got some alumni in position to make the major gifts, and they’ve done it. So we’ve improved just about every athletic facility here, really for all sports. ... That gives us a chance to recruit the best in-state players.
“If they can stay in-state and achieve their college dreams of playing for championships, graduating and hopefully going to the NFL, they can do it right here at home. Football is still about local recruiting.”
Spurrier also believes his staff is well above average when it come to recruiting.
“All of our coaches here are very good recruiters, some of them really good recruiters,” Spurrier said. “That’s how you get Marcus Lattimore and Jadeveon Clowney and Stephon Gilmore and all these guys. Most of these guys are South Carolina guys. They grew up here in our state. If they can play for championships at their home-state university and facilities are very good, it gives you naturally a little better chance. We don’t go into other states very often beat out a school that could go to their state.”
But the Gamecocks have done a little of that lately. They currently have seven Georgians committed for the Class of 2012. Among them is Lithonia offensive lineman Joe Harris, who chose South Carolina over the Bulldogs.
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