South Carolina Football: More recruiting good news is in as 4-star cornerback Lee commits

It appears this is Shane Beamer’s world, and the rest of us are just living in it. The South Carolina football head coach took over a 2-win program that lost 13 players that would eventually go on to the NFL. Somehow, despite this, Beamer guided the Gamecocks to a 7-win season in his first year even though the South Carolina football team played four different starting quarterbacks that season. The success of 2021 led to tremendous recruiting buy-in from prospects all around the country, and that recruiting momentum has only grown since then.

In 2023, Carolina picked up the 16th or 17th class in the country (depending on the outlet), and the 2024 class is shaping up to be even better. On Wednesday at noon, the Gamecocks added two public commitments to bring their tally up to 9 commits. 8 of the 9 were rated as 4-star prospects by at least one major recruiting outlet, and 4 of them were consensus blue chippers. Josiah Thompson might even be a five-star tackle by the time the final rankings drop.

Around the time of the public announcements from offensive lineman Mike Williams and safety Kelvin Hunter, Shane Beamer tweeted out his customary #WelcomeHome to indicate another commitment was incoming.

At about 1:00, defensive back Braydon Lee from the DMV (DC, Maryland, northeast Virginia) tweeted he would have an important announcement in about an hour.

When 2:00 rolled around, the Charles Herbert Flowers High School prospect let the world know that he would also be a Gamecock. Lee marks the second CHFHS recruit to commit to the Gamecocks in the last 24 hours and the fourth in the last two recruiting classes (Mike Williams, Desmond Umeozulu, Maurice Brown II). He is a 4-star prospect according to ESPN and Rivals, and he is considered a high 3-star recruit by both On3 and 247Sports.

Lee chose the Gamecocks over an impressive offer list that included Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Penn State. It is not 100% clear if Williams, Hunter, and Lee were represented by the three #WelcomeHome tweets from Beamer, but it appears that is the case.

Lee is the first cornerback prospect in the 2024 class to pledge his services to Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks and the second defensive back (safety Kelvin Hunter). Lee joins Mike Williams as commits from the DMV. The top overall recruit in the class Dylan Stewart is also from the area, and the Gamecocks hope their recent pipeline will extend to Friendship Collegiate Academy where the elite EDGE plays his high school football.