Over the weekend, South Carolina football hosted a large group of 2024 and 2025 prospects. Many of the visitors were offensive and defensive linemen, and there were elite recruits among them. After the weekend visitors went back home, Gamecock Head Coach Shane Beamer tweeted out his patented #WelcomeHome to indicate that a player had committed to the Gamecock coaching staff while on his visit.
On Tuesday, a second #WelcomeHome was dropped.
Let’s use this pic again since we’re on 🔥 at @GamecockFB right now !!!!!#WelcomeHome #24oreverToThee #WhosNext ? #ThatsTwoThisWeek
— Shane Beamer (@CoachSBeamer) March 21, 2023
🤙🏻 pic.twitter.com/MqtBfEDqfy
South Carolina fans have been speculating about who the two commitments might be.
Long-time Gamecock target Blake Franks is one whose name has been thrown out a lot. The Greenville High School offensive lineman has been trending toward the Gamecocks for the past couple of months. Once considered a heavy lean to the rival Clemson Tigers, Franks recently has been viewed as a lean to Carolina. He is a high school teammate of wide receiver pledge Mazeo Bennett and has been recruited heavily by Bennett and Gamecock lineman commit Kam Pringle.
Another common guess is Dillon’s Josiah Thompson. Thompson was not on campus this weekend (he had been recently), but he has been on commitment watch for months. Along with Pringle, Thompson is generally viewed as one of the top-two prospects in South Carolina. Both tackles are consensus top-10 tackles in the 2024 recruiting class. Last week, Thompson announced that he knew what his decision was going to be regarding his future school and team. He is set to announce his choice on April 11th.
Of course, other players on campus could have pledged to Coach Beamer and the Gamecocks. KingJoseph Edwards, a blue chip athlete who plays EDGE and tight end at Mill Creek in Georgia, has been effusive in his praise of his time spent in Columbia last weekend. Marcus Downs is an in-state lineman who has a lot of momentum in the recruiting industry, and he, too, thoroughly enjoyed his campus visit.
Even a non-lineman had positive things to say. Another Georgia athlete, Kam Mikell, promised to be “back soon.”
No matter which players jumped on board, Gamecock fans have much to be excited about when thinking about the future.