South Carolina Football: Gamecocks in top-8 for 4-star defensive back

In what was a massive recruiting weekend on campus for the South Carolina football program, head coach Shane Beamer and his staff hosted numerous big-time prospects from the 2024 recruiting cycle. However, there was also some Gamecock recruiting news that came to light away from Columbia. Over the weekend, 4-star defensive back Malcolm Ziglar announced his top-8.

The 6’2″ safety included South Carolina, Clemson, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Appalachian State, Kentucky, Penn State, and East Carolina in his list of finalists. He will be making official visit decisions soon.

As a prospect, Ziglar has risen up the recruiting rankings quickly. Unranked by some outlets as recently as this March, the Fuquay-Varina High School product is now considered to be a top-100 national recruit according to On3 and is on the rise in the rankings of other outlets.

On film, Ziglar is very physically impressive. He is as big as many high school linebackers (6’2″ and 200 pounds), but he has enough speed to perform well in track and field, as well. He is long and rangy defending the pass and is not afraid to play against the run, though he will need to become a stronger tackler.

Ziglar is one of several blue chip defensive backs that South Carolina football is in on in the 2024 recruiting class. 4-star safety Kelvin Hunter and 4-star corner Braydon Lee are already committed, and defensive backs coach Torrian Gray has the Gamecocks in the mix with 4-stars like Jalewis Solomon, Jarvis Boatwright, Kam Mikell, Kaj Sanders, Jalyn Crawford, and Ricardo Jones.

The Gamecocks will be losing at least four defensive backs off of the 2023 roster as Marcellas Dial, David Spaulding, BJ Gibson, and Isaiah Norris will all be graduating. Because of this, Carolina is expected to want to take more scholarship athletes in the secondary than just the two they currently have committed in Hunter and Lee.