South Carolina football fans haven't had much recruiting news to consume over the past couple of weeks.
The recruiting calendar is in a dead period right now, meaning that recruits and the schools pursuing them cannot have face-to-face contact or any form of visit (college campus, high school campus, in-home, etc.). Coaches may still contact players over the phone, but because of the limitations of the dead period, news often slows in the recruiting world.
Outside of three walk-on commitments last week (wide receiver Emazon Littlejohn, offensive lineman/long snapper Jake Recker, and defensive back Jackson Burger), not much has come out around the program recently.
On Tuesday, though, the Gamecocks made a little bit of news. class of 2025 North Carolina EDGE recruit Taeshawn Alston announced his list of top teams, and the South Carolina football program made the cut.
TOP 6️⃣ #AGTG🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/OYiuaPSCit
— Taeshawn Alston (@TaeshawnAlston) February 13, 2024
Alston released his top-6, and the list includes the South Carolina Gamecocks, North Carolina Tar Heels, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, West Virginia Mountaineers, Virginia Tech Hokies, and Rutgers Scarlet Knights.
Alston was initially listed as a 4-star prospect when On3 first rated him last year, but he is now considered a 3-star recruit by the entire recruiting industry.
An undersized EDGE player with a lot of athleticism, Alston is from Henderson, North Carolina. Henderson is a small town on the outskirts of Raleigh, North Carolina. So is Chapel Hill, the home of the North Carolina Tar Heels. The Tar Heels and Gamecocks appear to be the favorites at this point in Alston's recruitment.
As a player, Alston has a high upside. He is very athletic as a pass rusher, and while he is not an overly physical player at his position (he weighs just over 200 pounds), he gives effort when attempting to set the edge in the run game. He is also athletic enough to play some in coverage at the high school level, something that South Carolina has their outside linebackers and more athletic EDGE players do on occasion.
Alston seems to play with solid tackling instincts in space, and he has a knack for picking the right moments to leave his primary responsibility to go after a ball-carrier or quarterback behind the line of scrimmage. He spends most of his time as a stand-up EDGE rusher, so if he fails to add more size, a transition to playing linebacker likely would come fairly easily.
You can watch some of his film here.