Highest-rated prospect in South Carolina football recruiting class flips to SEC rival

The top-rated commitment in the 2025 class for South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer is cornerback Shamari Earls. Actually, that should say that the top-rated commitment in the 2025 class for South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer was cornerback Shamari Earls.

As many who follow recruiting had been coming to expect in recent weeks, the 4-star prospect has decommitted from the Gamecock program and announced a new home. As part of his decommitment, Earls has committed to a rival SEC program, completing his long-awaited flip to the Georgia Bulldogs. He announced the decision on social media.

Losing Earls is a blow for defensive backs coach Torrian Gray and the Carolina defensive coaching staff. However, because the decommitment has been suspected for a while, USC has been working to fill the void left by the 4-star defection.

So far, the Gamecocks have two defensive backs committed in the '25 cycle. 4-star Damarcus Leach is a safety, and 3-star Christopher Hatfield is rated as a cornerback by some recruiting outlets and rated as a safety by some other outlets. 3-star athlete Jaquel Holman is believed to be a linebacker at the next level but could wind up at safety. He is not a candidate to play corner.

Gray and the Gamecocks are involved with several other defensive back prospects in the class and hope to bring in another couple of secondary players before the recruiting cycle ends.

The South Carolina football roster also has a lot of young talent in the secondary, including three cornerbacks who were rated as 4-star prospects by at least one major recruiting outlet and who still have at least three years of eligibility remaining.

Emory Floyd (redshirt sophomore), Vicari Swain (redshirt freshman), and Jalewis Solomon (true freshman) are all former blue chip prospects and will join sophomore Judge Collier (the team's third corner for much of the 2023 season) as the top options to win the starting cornerback job opposite of senior OD Fortune.