South Carolina Football: Pair of big-time prospects set official visits to Columbia

Summer official visit season is right around the corner, and the South Carolina football program is in for a big summer of hosting highly-touted recruits. Some of the country’s top 2024 and 2025 prospects will descend upon Columbia, South Carolina, and Shane Beamer and his staff will do their best to show them all that the University of South Carolina is where home is.

Over the weekend, two elite prospects from the 2024 recruiting class scheduled their official visits.

Jalewis Solomon, a 6’1″ and 185-pound athlete from Ellaville, Georgia scheduled his official visit for the weekend of June 2nd-June 4th.

Lewis is a 4-star prospect from Schley County High School. He plays both wide receiver and cornerback for Schley County, and there is some division about what his best position is at the next level. South Carolina football’s defensive backs coach Torrian Gray is the primary recruiter involved with Solomon for the Gamecocks, so it would appear that he would be a defensive back if he were to choose the Gamecocks. According to On3’s Recruiting Prediction Machine (and Solomon’s own social media feed), Florida State appears to be his leader right now.

Braylen Russell, a big-bodied running back from Benton, Arkansas also set an official visit to Columbia the same weekend (June 2nd-June 4th), although his visit is a bit of a surprise.

Russell is a rising senior at Benton High School in Arkansas and was a former Razorback commitment. He recommitted in the fall but announced that Arkansas would still be a factor in his recruitment. There has not been a ton of Carolina-related buzz when it has come to Russell, but the 6’2″, 230-pound bruiser has consistently put the Gamecocks on every list he releases: top-10, top-5, and now official visit. Russell’s relationship with former Arkansas assistant and current Gamecock offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains is sure to be a factor moving forward.

South Carolina football is pursuing several other high-end defensive backs while recruiting Solomon and several other big-time running backs while attempting to win over Russell. Players like Kaj Sanders, Ricardo Jones, and Kam Mikell are among the defensive back recruits Carolina is recruiting with Solomon. Daniel Hill, Anthony Carrie, and Peyton Lewis are the Gamecocks’ main targets at running back along with Russell.