South Carolina Recruiting: Where Do They Stand?

by Lee Wardlaw

In college football, it is commonly said that it takes excellent recruiting over a sustained period of time to build a program into a consistent winner.

While the sport has continued to fascinate fans across the nation with pageantry, tradition, rivalries, and an awesome element of surprise, the lack of an organized player draft often means that only a select few universities have the resources to consistently collect the majority of the top high school football recruits in the nation, as they are usually equipped with highly-paid coaching staffs, state-of-the-art facilities, big-name donors, and all of the other bells and whistles.

The schools who assemble the most elite recruiting classes over a five-year period have much better odds to have a higher winning percentage and compete for national championships than those who don’t, and there’s math to back it up.

Only nine different schools have qualified for the four-team College Football Playoff since its establishment in 2014, meaning that only 0.07% of 129 existing Football Bowl Subdivision schools have ever qualified to compete for the national championship in the format’s four-year existence.

Four schools have qualified for the playoff on more than one occasion: including Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma, and Clemson. These powers all have one thing in common: excellent sustained recruiting over a five-year period.

Clemson has been on of the few. Image from Clemson Athletics.

Using 247 Sports’ Football Team Composite Rankings from 2013-2017 as a reference, let’s look at how stellar recruiting has directly correlated to winning football games.

Alabama is college football’s king of recruiting, hauling the nation’s top class in each of the last five years, while averaging 12.8 wins per season in that span. They haven’t missed the playoffs since it’s introduction, and they’ve won the national championship in two of the past three seasons.

Not far behind lies Ohio State, who averaged a 3.6 class ranking, correlating to an average of 12 wins per season. While not Alabama, the Buckeyes also have plenty of hardware in the trophy case, including a playoff championship.

Read carefully, though: a top-five class isn’t always necessary.

Both Clemson and Oklahoma have proved that similar success can be attained with at least a top-15 class, each averaging a 13.4 ranking. Clemson has utilized its’ recruiting success more than Oklahoma, averaging 12 wins per season, compared to the Sooners 10.6.

Nevertheless, acquiring talented players is the first step, and coaching those players comes second. This should be good news for the future of one particular Southeastern Conference program: Will Muschamp’s South Carolina Gamecocks.

Muchamp is starting to make some noise at South Carolina. Image from USA Today.

Few will dispute the fact that Muschamp’s first head coaching opportunity with division rival Florida didn’t go as planned, and he’d probably be the first to admit it. Thus, many weren’t happy when he arrived to campus.

While talent isn’t limited in Columbia, it’s not like the Gamecocks consistently recruit average at least top-15 classes. Heck, the program has never even made a trip to the former Bowl Championship Series or qualified for the current College Football Playoff.

Despite this, Muschamp had proven two things before he arrived to South Carolina: he’s excellent at both recruiting high school players and coaching defense.

But most importantly, recruiting. The third-year Gamecocks’ coach reminded South Carolina fans of his recruiting prowess at his opening press conference when he accepted the head coaching offer in December 2015. “Gamecock Nation, if you don’t think I can recruit, look at her (Muschamp’s wife) and look at me. I can sell ice to an eskimo.”

Muschamp had a strong recruiting background before coaching at South Carolina, spending “14 college seasons at part of strong recruiting staffs at perennial strong recruiting locales,” according to an article published on The State shortly after he took the job with the Gamecocks.

While at Florida, Muschamp’s staff recruited 40 four-star and five-star players, 27 which came from the defensive side of the ball. Noteable alumni of Muschamp include not only current Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III, a former two-time first team All-American, but also former all-conference defensive end Jonathan Bullard, who now plays for Chicago. Additionally, his staff signed five-star quarterback Will Grier, who transferred to West Virginia.

Muschamp’s no-nonsense recruiting mentality payed off immediately at South Carolina, hiring an experienced staff with ties to high school coaches in the state and the area.

South Carolina was tasked with piecing together a seemingly doomed class marred by the departure of Steve Spurrier in December 2015, and while ‘late out of the gate,’ Muschamp’s staff landed the the nation’s 25th-ranked class, according to 247Composite.

The group has been influential in building the foundation of Muschamp’s program, none more than rising junior quarterback Jake Bentley. The highly-touted signee has gone on to throw for 3,975 yards and 25 touchdowns in two seasons, while leading the rag-tag group to a bowl game in 2016 and a 9-4 season in 2017.

Bryan Edwards has also been a key to the program’s resurrection, leading the Gamecocks with 793 receiving yards after Deebo Samuel went down with a season-ending injury after the season’s third week. Along with that, there’s a host of defensive playmakers to choose from, including T.J Brunson, who recorded 88 tackles in ’17 and is expected to leave the defense next fall.

Muschamp’s 2016 class finished 21st nationally, and a number of impact freshman assisted the Gamecocks to an unexpected 9-4 finish in ’17.

Rookie wide receivers Or’Tre Smith and Shi Smith combined as a one-two punch on the offensive side of the ball, both finishing in the top five in team receiving yards. Or’Tre provided a big target for Bentley to throw to, and Shi a speedy alternative. The two combined for 59 receptions, 735 yards, and six touchdowns.  Defensively, four-star cornerback Jaymest Williams recorded 38 tackles and two interceptions, while defensive end Aaron Sterling and Sherrod Greene also contributed.

South Carolina has recruited at a top-25 pace for three years under Muschamp, averaging a 21.6 ranking over a three-year period. The numbers reflect positively: Muschamp’s work has helped earn some credibility back to a once-proud Steve Spurrier led program, which fell to a low point after his mid-season retirement, finishing 3-9 and losing to The Citadel.

It’s not the fact that the Gamecocks are flashy. They’re simply exceeding expectations by any means possible, and you have to give Muschamp credit when due. Plus, there’s enough returning impact players to win a lot of games in 2018. Finally, the pieces are beginning to fit in Columbia, and national pundits are beginning to take notice of that.

Columnist Pete Fituak reminds us of this in his preview of the team, writing “South Carolina’s offense was worst in the SEC, there wasn’t enough of a downfield passing game, the pass rush was mediocre, and the O was the third-worst in the conference when it came to third down conversions.” However, a win is a win in the SEC, Fituak remembers. “Whatever. The Gamecocks went 9-4.”

A nine-win season wasn’t expected in 2017, and Muschamp can continue to prove doubters wrong if he can further improve that total. It isn’t out of the question, considering that third-year starter Jake Bentley returns three out of his four leading receivers, along with all-around star Deebo Samuel, who recorded six touchdowns before going down with an injury in last season’s third game against Kentucky.

On defense, the Gamecocks return six starters to a squad that wasn’t dominant, crafty with creating turnovers. Defensive-leading linebacker Skai Moore departs, but T.J Brunson will look to fill the void, and should be capable after recording 88 tackles last fall. Big junior lineman D.J Wonnum should aid the pass rush once again, while Rashad Fenton and Jaymest Williams will look to plug a thin secondary.

DJ Wonnum returns. Image from South Carolina Athletics.

But make no mistake: this shouldn’t be Muschamp’s most talented team. The Class of ‘19 is currently ranked 16th nationally, and should be the highest ranked group that has come to Columbia since 2009. There’s a lot of hype surrounding the group, and there’s spots to fill: only 17 players have been inked thus far.

Which brings me to my point: the Gamecocks can begin to compete at the championship level in the near future. First, they must put the icing on the cake for ’19. Then, the coaching staff must continue to hit the recruiting trail successfully, a task that could be made easier if South Carolina improves on its’ win total this fall.

Regardless, fans should be optimistic, because Muschamp’s staff is willing to do more than Spurrier’s staff to get top players to campus.  A quote from Summerville High head coach Joe Call in a 2016 Saturday Down South outlines the differences between the two coaching staffs.  “South Carolina for the last couple of years under Spurrier, we would only see the coach who recruited our area,” Call recalled. However, “Now since Muschamp’s been there, and he’s been there (just over) a year, I’ve had seven different coaches from South Carolina come through our school, just to meet me, meet our assistants, establish relationships.”

The hard work is starting to pay off, and that was especially demonstrated when the Gamecocks were able to acquire two top targets with national accolades: four-star quarterback Ryan Hilinski and five-star defensive end Zacch Pickens. Their commitments were symbolic to the program, with many fans likely having flashbacks to pledges by former standouts like Marcus Lattimore and Alshon Jeffery.

As Jake Bentley enters his third season as South Carolina’s signal caller, fans are already starting to wonder if 6’3” 218-pound Ryan Hilinski (Orange Lutheran, CA) can take the Gamecocks farther than Bentley will ever be able to.

The pro-style quarterback, who completed over 70% of his passes for 3,749 yards with 33 touchdowns in ’17  picked the Gamecocks over local west coast such as Oregon, Arizona, and Arizona State, deciding to pair up with new South Carolina quarterbacks coach Dan Werner, who plans to run a similar system to that of Hilinski’s high school team.

A Scout report from a camp appearance described Hilinski as a big-armed passer with good decision-making skills. “He was getting the ball out early and on time, hitting receivers before they came out of there breaks and that made all the difference,” the report reads.

Additionally, the quarterback’s intangibles are strong, as the prospect’s high school offensive coordinator Michael Crawford describes. Crawford reiterates Hilinski’s desire to compete and attention to detail, while reassuring fans that he’s committed to studying the playbook. “He puts in a lot of time to breakdown coverages, breakdown defenses and breakdown defensive line fronts,” Crawford said.

South Carolina won big out west with Hilinski, but the commitment of five-star defensive end Zacch Pickens over Clemson was symbolic, because the Gamecocks snatched a top player from the detested instate rival and national contender’s backyard, Pickens’ high school being only a mere 18 miles away from Clemson Memorial Stadium.

The mammoth-sized end, checking in at 6’4” and 268 pounds, is widely considered the state’s top prospect. The jury is out on how good Pickens can be in college, but he has the tools to become a disruptive lineman in big-time college football. He’s sizable, speedy, and powerful, and it’s all on tape. Rivals analyst Mike Farrell notes that Pickens is “not only a very good pass rusher, but he’s excellent in stopping the run and disrupting plays in the backfield.”

You heard it here first: if South Carolina can catch fire on the field this season and put the finishing touches on the class of ’19, they might just what it takes to reach the next level of recruiting.

If they can do that, look out. I’m not saying it’s a guarantee by any means, but fans should be reassured by the fact that Muschamp’s staff is always hot on the trail.