South Carolina Gamecocks News: Football recruiting, transfer portal, more

Here is the latest South Carolina Gamecocks News from the last week, starting with a recruiting update from the Gamecocks football team.

Shane Beamer announced three separate #WelcomeHome commitments on Monday. Beamer’s tweets seemed to indicate that at least two of the three prospects were on official visits this month, something that played out when the first two recruits publicly announced their decisions.

One commitment was known almost immediately as 5-star punter/placekicker Mason Love made his pledge public within a few hours of Beamer’s tease on Twitter. Love is rated as the 4th-best punter in the nation in the class of 2024 by Kohl’s Kicking.

It took until the weekend for the second commitment to announce. Fred “JayR” Johnson is a 3-star linebacker prospect from Virginia who could end up as a 4-star this cycle. His stock has been rising rapidly in recent months, and his ascent continued after an impressive athletic showing while attending a camp at the University of South Carolina. He committed on Saturday.

The final commitment has not yet gone public with an announcement. Several prospects are extremely high on the Gamecock and could be considered on “commitment watch.” RB Matthew Fuller, DB Kaleb Harris, and DT Nnamdi Ogboko seem the most likely candidates, but several others recruits are viewed as having the Gamecocks at the top of their leaderboards.

4-star interior offensive lineman Liam Andrews was on campus over this past weekend. Andrews enjoyed his visit, but his recruitment seems far from over. The Gamecocks are battling Penn State, LSU, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Miami, Wisconsin, and Florida as the other teams in his top-8.

Next weekend will be another massive weekend on campus. The majority of the committed recruits in the 2024 class will be on campus to help with the recruiting efforts of Dylan Stewart (5-star EDGE), Daniel Hill (4-star RB), Jonathan Paylor (4-star WR), and David Bucey (3-star LB).

Jordan Thomas (4-star DT) committed to Georgia this week and is slated to be on campus in Columbia this weekend, but it is unclear whether or not he will cancel his visit. Previous Georgia commitments have typically not come on official visits to Carolina.

Former South Carolina commitment Mike Williams (3-star OL) announced a new commitment to the Florida Gators. Williams and the Gamecocks mutually agreed to part ways in May.

Some sad news hit Gamecock Nation this week, as well.

Legendary defensive line coach Brad Lawing passed away at the age of 65 this week. Lawing is the longest-tenured assistant coach in the history of the Gamecock program (17 years over two stints in Columbia) and was extremely successful as an on-field coach and as a recruiter.

The 2024 SEC football schedule was released.

South Carolina football will take on Missouri, Ole Miss, LSU, and Texas A&M at home and will play on the road against Alabama, Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, and Kentucky.

A former Gamecock worked his way back onto an NFL roster.

Defensive tackle Kobe Smith played this spring in the XFL after not finding a roster spot with an NFL franchise after the 2022 season. Despite dealing with injuries, Smith showed enough in the XFL to get another crack at the League in 2023 as he signed a deal with the New York Giants.

The South Carolina Baseball team got in on the recruiting action, as well, bringing in multiple players in the transfer portal.

The Gamecocks are adding transfer portal arms Ty Good and Garrett Gainey to the program’s pitching staff for 2024. Good is expected to compete for a starter spot, and Gainey adds another lefty arm to a bullpen that drastically needed left-handed help out of the ‘pen in 2023.

Charlotte defection Blake Jackson joins Austin Brinling as outfielder transfers that have committed to the Gamecocks. Jackson is a high on-base player who could compete with the speedster Brinling for the leadoff role. Both players can play all over the outfield.

Infielder Michael Braswell announced his decision to transfer out of the South Carolina baseball program early in the week and had found his new home before the week ended. Braswell will play for SEC rival LSU.

Senior relief pitcher Brett Thomas also announced he would be entering the transfer portal but has not found his new team.

Another Carolina baseball alum received his call-up to the Big Leagues this week.

Two weeks after outfielder TJ Hopkins was promoted to the Cincinnati Reds, his former college teammate was called up to an NL Central rival. Right-handed pitcher Carmen Mlodzinski was moved up to the Pittsburgh Pirates from Triple-A Indianapolis over the weekend.

The Carolina women’s basketball team announced another big-time game in their out-of-conference schedule.

Dawn Staley and her team will take on Utah as part of the Basketball Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase on December 10th. The matchup will be part of a triple-header along with UConn vs. North Carolina and UCLA vs. Florida State. All six squads made last year’s NCAA Tournament and are ranked in the top-20 of most preseason polls for the 2024 season.

A Carolina legend has decided to retire.

Long-time Gamecock track and field coach Curtis Frye retired after 27 seasons at the helm of South Carolina Track and Field. Frye coached national champions, SEC champions, and Olympians during his time in Columbia and played a role in the Gamecocks landing 5-star football recruit Nyck Harbor in the 2023 class.

Frye is 71, and the three-time National Coach of the Year will officially step down at the end of June.