4-star DL Marquise Evans commits to Auburn despite a late push by South Carolina

In college football recruiting, you can't win every single battle. The South Carolina Gamecocks and head coach Shane Beamer found that out the hard way on Wednesday. 

In the afternoon of July 1, four-star defensive end Marquise Evans committed to the Auburn Tigers. The defensive end out of Birmingham, Ala. committed to the Tigers over his other final schools in South Carolina, Tennessee and Miami. While the news isn't all that surprising, given that Auburn was the favorite to land the in-state prospect, South Carolina was seen as making some headway in recent weeks. After a visit to Columbia on June 19, he had high praise for South Carolina's coaching staff. 

"They put a premium on me," Evans told Gamecock Central of his visit. They made sure I was a priority and I already knew it was going to be [like] because of how many times I'd been down there, how close they kept the relationship all this time."

The defensive lineman is rated by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 39 player in his position group, and the No. 17 ranked player from his home state of Alabama. As he narrowed down his decision, he took visits to his final schools He visited Tennessee on May 22, followed up with a visit to Miami on the 29th. In June, he visited Auburn, Florida and was with the Gamecocks the weekend of the 19th. 

His Rivals page had logged a prediction for Evans, with a 93% chance of him landing at in-state Auburn. The site gave the Gamecocks a 2% chance to land him.  He also told the Auburn Observer that when he visits with the Tigers, it "feels like home."

But the good news is that Gamecocks could be on the verge of landing one of the biggest prospects they've been recruiting this cycle in five-star cornerback Joshua Dobson. On Wednesday afternoon, several recruiting experts flipped their predictions for Dobson from the long favorite Texas A&M to South Carolina. 

Evans landing at Auburn means South Carolina will have to look elsewhere at the defensive end position. With his commitment, Auburn's 2027 recruiting class is ranked 9th nationally per the 247Sports Composite, in what's a hot start for new Tigers head coach Alex Golesh.

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