It is not a foreign concept for South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer to bring in players from the transfer portal with whom he has had prior experience.
Most notably, quarterback Spencer Rattler played at Oklahoma while Beamer was on staff in Norman and then transferred to play at Carolina in 2022 and 2023, becoming a legend in garnet and black.
Tight end Austin Stogner (Oklahoma) and defensive back DeAngelo Gibbs (Georgia) also played for teams Beamer helped coach, as well.
On Sunday, the Gamecocks picked up another commitment according to the Carolina headman's patented #WelcomeHome post on Twitter/X. This turned out to be another player who already knew Coach Beamer committing to the South Carolina football program.
Columbia Wadduppp 🤙🏽. Let’s Work. Can’t Wait To Get There Later In The Week. @CoachSBeamer @RivalsFriedman @ghafirtheturtle @BrianDohn247 @DreKates7 pic.twitter.com/qJxLDqQIMS
— Aaryn “AJ” Parks (@AP61_) January 7, 2024
This time, it was offensive lineman Aaryn "AJ" Parks. A player with two more years of eligibility remaining thanks to the "Covid redshirt" of 2020 and a traditional redshirt in 2021, the former Oklahoma Sooner was a consensus 4-star prospect in the class of 2020 and was ranked as highly as the 69th-best player in the nation that cycle.
He has played sparingly while at Oklahoma, but he has better upside than most depth offensive linemen. Oklahoma has had four offensive linemen drafted during Parks' time in Norman and five offensive linemen that made the All-Big 12 2nd-team or Honorable Mention team in 2023. This means that there were some good players ahead of Parks on the depth chart with the Sooners.
Parks has some solid physical ability. He is viewed as a plus athlete as an offensive lineman, and at 6'4" and 300 pounds, he profiles as a player who can play inside or outside depending on what the Gamecocks need him to do.
Parks is another player who hails from the DMV (DC, Delaware, Maryland, northeast Virginia) and continues a trend of Beamer and the South Carolina football staff doing very well in that part of the country in recruiting.
This spring and summer, Parks will compete with a long list of Gamecock offensive linemen who are fighting for a spot in the 2-deep up front. He will help replace the three transfer portal losses on the offensive line from the South Carolina football team (Jaylen Nichols, Grayson Mains, and JonDarius Morgan).