A new age of recruiting: How USC balanced HS prospects with transfer portal rush
Before he mentioned a single name in South Carolina’s 2024 recruiting class, Shane Beamer shared the angst he was feeling.
Not with any recruits. Not with NIL or the transfer portal. But with the fact he was standing behind a podium in December without a game to prepare for.
“This is the first time in 16 seasons that I’m not getting ready for a bowl game. Sixteen seasons,” Beamer said Wednesday. “That’s not OK and never will be around here. I’m not happy and it’s my job to fix it.”
But, in a way, one could make the argument that not playing in a bowl game benefits South Carolina — at least this season.
If the Gamecocks are bowl-less next year and beyond, outcry will follow. But for one year, for this year, Beamer and his staff could jet around the country and host recruits and transfer portal prospects without worrying about scouting Georgia Tech or whoever in the Gasparilla Bowl.
“It did (help). I never ever, ever want to do it again,” Beamer said. “I will find a way to find a way to manage next year (when we’re) back in a bowl game. … We were really able to focus on our current roster and focus on high school recruiting and portal recruiting as well.”
On Wednesday, South Carolina signed 24 total players: 15 from high school, eight more from the portal and one from junior college.
USC built the 247Sports Composite’s 20th-best prep recruiting class, a haul highlighted by five-star edge rusher Dylan Stewart and five-star offensive tackle Josiah Thompson. Perhaps more impressive, though, was what Beamer pulled off in the transfer portal.
The Gamecocks added eight transfers from the portal, including former Arkansas running back Raheim “Rocket” Sanders and two other tailbacks.
Based on 247Sports’ rankings, South Carolina has built the No. 5 transfer portal class.
The Gamecocks pulled that off, in part, with a new strategy they employed because Beamer realized the portal moves at light speed. The goal is to evaluate a kid rapidly, decide if you’re going to offer them then try and get them on campus for a visit as fast as possible.
That becomes a million times harder when your coaches are spread out across the East Coast recruiting high school prospects. The Gamecocks instead tried to keep their staff separated by only a few rooms at the football operations building.
“Every morning, midday and afternoon, I was in Columbia around our own team,” Beamer said, “and was in the office able to evaluate guys when they went in the portal. If someone went into the portal, we weren’t in four different locations across the country. We were all right here. We could watch it. We could decide if this is a guy we wanted to go on and we did.”
Beamer and his assistants then kept their late-afternoon and evening schedule clear to board a jet and visit every commitment to South Carolina and a few other recruits — such as in-state Tennessee commit Braylon Staley (who signed with the Vols on Wednesday).
“It really did work for us,” Beamer said.
In a way, the Gamecocks provided a blueprint for how they might recruit going forward.
Aside from JUCO transfer DT Jerome Simmons and three-star receiver Debron Gatling, who flipped to USC from Texas A&M on Wednesday, the Gamecocks basically wrapped up their 2024 recruiting class by early October. Because of that, when the 2023 season concluded, South Carolina turned its attention to the transfer portal, knowing what roster holes it needed to fill.
“It’s always going to start with high-school recruiting,” Beamer said. “If we could sign 20 to 25 ready-made high-school guys a year, we would. That’s probably not realistic.”
South Carolina has also shown a willingness to attack positions where it’s been caught off guard by someone from its roster entering the portal.
A few weeks ago, running back Mario Anderson decided he would play his final year of college away from Columbia. That left the Gamecocks with two scholarship tailbacks — and they did not need more young backs. They needed experience, which Beamer lured in with Sanders, North Texas’ Oscar Adaway and S.C. State’s Jawarn Howell.
“You’ve got to readjust,” Beamer said. “You realize that it’s not going to be in high school recruiting. It’s going to have to be from the portal.”
USC signing class and transfers, by position
Includes those confirmed by South Carolina as signing ... x-denotes transfer portal add
OFFENSE (13)
Quarterback (1): Dante Reno
Running Back (4): Matthew Fuller, x-Raheim “Rocket” Sanders, x-Oscar Adaway III, x-Jawarn Howell
Wide Receiver (3): Mazeo Bennett, Debron Gatling, x-Jared Brown
Tight End (2): Michael Smith, x-Brady Hunt
Offensive Line (3): Blake Franks, Kam Pringle, Josiah Thompson
DEFENSE (10)
Tackle (2): Jerome Simmons, x-DeAndre Jules
Edge (2): Dylan Stewart, x-Kyle Kennard
Linebacker (2): Wendell Gregory, Fred “JayR” Johnson
Defensive Back (4): David Bucey, Kelvin Hunter, Jalewis Solomon, x-Gerald Kilgore
OTHER (1)
Kicker/Punter (1): Mason Love
