Gamecocks football recruiting: Will Zack Bailey choose South Carolina?
By Sydney Hunte
The South Carolina Gamecocks are high on the list of four-star in-state offensive guard Zack Bailey from Summerville. So are the Clemson Tigers.
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Who has the edge? We probably won’t know until he decides before the start of the 2014 campaign, his senior season in high school. But the thinking is, according to what he has told recruiting analyst Phil Kornblut from GoGamecocks.com and SportsTalk SC, those two have the edge over other programs that have recruited and offered him. Bailey stopped by Columbia last weekend with his grandparents.
“My grandparents are big into academics. It was important for them to see the campus,” Bailey told Kornblut. “They saw the academic center and talked to the academic people, saw the stadium, and talked to (offensive line) coach (Shawn) Elliott and got to meet (running backs) coach (Everette) Sands.”
Football isn’t the only sport Bailey excels at. He’s also an accomplished field sports athlete:
#Gamecocks OL target Zack Bailey (@ZackaryDBailey) threw personal best 54 feet in today's state championship shot put. Finished 2nd in state
— John Whittle (@johnmwhittle) May 17, 2014
Oregon and Georgia are thought to be favorites for Bailey’s services as well, but 247Sports’ group of nine analysts speculate that Columbia will be the landing spot for the big 6’5″, 300-pounder who is ranked as a top-five guard nationally. He’d go great down the road lining up with Austin Clark, the nation’s ninth-ranked offensive tackle who pledged to the Gamecocks last week.