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South Carolina Mod on why 3 star U is in great shape.

Aug 7, 2017, 5:00 PM

There has been plenty of talk about the rankings of South Carolina’s 2018 recruiting class (only two four-stars as things stand today and one is former Auburn defensive back Marlon Character), so I have been doing some checking around with coaches, scouts and analysts like I used to be about some of the individual players and here’s what I got.

-A college coaching staff member who has evaluated most, if not all of the Gamecocks’ class believes that multiple South Carolina commits are highly underrated by the various recruiting networks. His philosophy is that maybe some of these guys didn’t attend the right camps to be seen (Deshaun Fenwick) or that they were late getting on the radar (Ronnie Jamison). He thinks it’s definitely a good class full of guys that can make a difference at South Carolina. You never really know how things are going to turn out, but this particular source, who I trust, was confident that Will Muschamp and his staff have put together a “sneaky good” class so far.

-One player that has caught the attention of the national analysts that I spoke with is center Hank Manos. They love his upside and the fact he’s a wrestler. There’s a chance you will see his rating rise in the near future and he’s “on the radar” of some of the national all-star games as a center prospect. I can also add the USC coaching staff loves this kid.

-I was told by someone I trust that “In the state of South Carolina in a given year, your guys with the hype may not always turn out, but there will be 2-3 that are completely off the radar that will be big-time players”. You can name some that have gone out-of-state over the years- Richard Seymour, Travis Williams, Tim Jennings, Darwin Walker, Demarcus Lawrence, Mike Anderson (though that was a different kind of deal)- all guys from the Palmetto State not on the national recruiting radar that thrived. It’s also happened at USC and Clemson. DJ Swearinger was a three-star prospect that played like a high four in college and is still in the NFL. John Abraham was great and had one offer. Sticking in the town of Lamar- BJ Goodson had one offer- from Clemson- and I read today where he is the middle linebacker of the future for the New York Giants. So with the in-state guys in particular, given what my contact said and the evidence that points to that being a fact, keep the faith even if they aren’t highly-rated.

-I expect multiple analysts to take a second look at Fenwick and Valentine, along with several others including Manos and Jamison and wouldn’t be surprised to see their ratings increase. There are no guarantees, but I know there are some folks taking a hard look at them.

-An analyst I trust said he thought Tyquan Johnson could be a four-star down the road. He really liked his film. He liked Jamison, too, but was a little concerned about the stats (200 yards receiving for Highlands last season). I would have probably held off, too, from a rankings standpoint based on that production. You have to keep in mind you are limited in the amount of four-star ratings you can give, so you have to split hairs a bit.

-Another contact pointed out to me, and this is valid, that outside of the blue blood programs like Ohio State and Alabama or a program like Georgia that has a known guru like Sam Pittman coaching there, most programs that have five offensive linemen committed out of 18 aren’t going to rank too terribly high in terms of team rankings score. That’s more a procedural thing with regards to how the evaluations of offensive linemen go and the fact that it’s a very, very developmental position, but I thought that was interesting.

-In the eyes of one scout, Jonathan Gibson is a four-star all the way no questions asked.

-I was told that some of the scuttlebutt around the recruiting industry is that they "think" Muschamp and his staff may be getting so far ahead with the evaluation process that the industry will start to figure it out and catch up. In other words, a player may be a zero star, get an offer from Carolina and then they pay attention and evaluate him. If they had done that with Channing Tindall, for example (USC was three months ahead of everyone offering him), he would have been ranked higher a lot earlier and thus they would have looked a lot better, which is the bottom line for analysts.

So here’s the bottom line about all of this... There are a lot of players in this class that can flat-out play some football and coaches, scouts and analysts all agree on that point. You have to realize, too, that the rankings business (which I was a part of for 10 years) is an end-game type of process. Remember how good Todd Gurley was? Well, we didn’t have him in the Top247 until we saw him at Shrine Bowl. He probably could have made a case for top five overall that cycle. You also have to keep in mind the time element. It takes time to evaluate players and to paint your masterpiece so to speak and there are some guys who they just flat-out haven’t gotten around to evaluating. Also, and I have mentioned this, the three-star rating category is no longer what it used to be. It’s vast. So you have a chunk that should be four stars and it will play out that way. You have a chunk that are three-stars and it will play out that way. You have a chunk that should be two-stars and it will play out that way. If you can evaluate well these days, you can get your share of the right ones and if you can coach and develop, you can out-pace your recruiting rankings with wins on the field. I personally trust the evaluation process in place at South Carolina right now, even though there is not enough evidence in terms of what happens on Saturdays (this staff has only coached one season) to say for sure that they are batting a high percentage on these guys.

I did feel, though, as the owner of this site, that I should check around with other people on this subject to make sure I wasn’t missing anything or looking at it with tunnel vision because I only cover one program. I felt like I owed you guys some different perspectives. I don't expect you guys to jump up and down and get as excited about a player that has a lower rating as one that has a higher rating (after all, what's the purpose of loving to follow recruiting if you can't get excited about highly-rated talent), but I do think given the feedback that there are plenty of players on the commit list who could rise as the cycle moves forward and of course there are plenty of four-star guys USC is still in on and stands a good chance of landing. One final point to keep in mind- at the end of it all for the 2017 cycle there were 13 players rated four stars or better by at least one of the major networks that signed with South Carolina.

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"We establish no religion in this country, we mandate no belief. Nor will we ever. Church and state are, and must remain, separate." ~Ronald Reagan

JC has done some things over the years that indicate he has absolutely zero credibility.

I wish it wasn't so. Truthfully I mislike the venom of the rivalry with South Carolina and I wish there were better guys to chat up on that side of the state and have kind of a more civil, friendlier rivalry but some of their tactics over the years preclude it.

Among JC's feats in the past were manipulating ratings to get a 4-star DB (Chris Culliver) re-classified as a 5-star WR on the basis of two catches he made in some lower-tier All-Star game (it wasn't even the Shrine Bowl.) The guy had never played WR before in his life, was clearly an under-six-foot DB with questionable acceleration and route-running ability...but he was choosing between South Carolina (who was recruiting him as a WR) and Clemson (who was recruiting him as a DB.) JC got Culliver rated 5-stars as a WR...and of course Culliver chose Carolina, who was telling him what he wanted to hear. I think he might have last three weeks or something like that in Fall camp before the Carolina coaches of course switched him back to DB.

JC has done a lot of stuff like that over the years. Keep in mind South Carolina's recruiting fell right off a cliff after about 2013...but there was absolutely nothing in any of their recruiting sites indicating that. Clemson averaged 11th to 13th in the country in that span depending on publication, South Carolina 16th to 19th, and per their recruiting rankings there was zero indication of the coming cataclysm, which has seen Carolina put just 7 guys in the NFL since 2014, and none last year. (Clemson, by comparison, has had 20 guys drafted since 2014.)

One of those schools was clearly underrated in terms of quality, one dramatically overrated by its resident recruiting analysts. I'll give you three guesses which was which.

JC, at this point, is pretty much the Iraqi Info minister, spouting defiance even as the Republican Guard burns behind him. Even reading his stuff makes you just shake your head some.

South Carolina Mod on why 3 star U is in great shape.

So, in an effort to prop up USuC's class,

#### fans be like

Re: #### fans be like

Ha, no worries. You are in a long and distinguished line.

Re: South Carolina Mod on why 3 star U is in great shape.

not sure you know this but Tiger did not write that it

maybe you did and I mis read that sorry***

Re: maybe you did and I mis read that sorry***

Re: South Carolina Mod on why 3 star U is in great shape.***

Re: South Carolina Mod on why 3 star U is in great shape.

Re: South Carolina Mod on why 3 star U is in great shape.

You would know, takes one to know one...We'll defer to your

He's an actor

He acts like he can write.***

Re: He's an actor

Your medication seems to be working.***

Law of averages plays out

My God...that is pathetic...Is there anything they can't

Re: My God...that is pathetic...Is there anything they can't

mustcoot can coach up

What Coot site is this from?***

Does he really believe that they out-evaluated Clemson on an

Re: Does he really believe that they out-evaluated Clemson on an

Re: Does he really believe that they out-evaluated Clemson on an

Ask him in two or three more years...

Re: South Carolina Mod on why 3 star U is in great shape.

Re: South Carolina Mod on why 3 star U is in great shape.

Re: South Carolina Mod on why 3 star U is in great shape.

Re: South Carolina Mod on why 3 star U is in great shape.***

Re: South Carolina Mod on why 3 star U is in great shape.***

Re: South Carolina Mod on why 3 star U is in great shape.

You can reverse engineer just about anything

I just think it's very telling that he felt the need to...

Re: South Carolina Mod on why 3 star U is in great shape.

Re: South Carolina Mod on why 3 star U is in great shape.

pretty good analysis on his part,

This is my favorite part

A drunk at a bar is not a source***

Took a gallon of lipstick to make that pig look good.***

LOL***

Re: South Carolina Mod on why 3 star U is in great shape.

Thanks tiger Woods - this is a good read. Interesting theory

Terrific.

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