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Wes Mitchell
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FOOTBALL RECRUITING NOTES
** South Carolina quarterback commit Ryan Hilinski took his official visit to South Carolina over the weekend and recapped how the visit went here. In talking to Hilinski, I'd say one of the highlights of the trip for him was sitting down with quarterbacks coach Dan Werner and taking an in-depth look at the offense and how Hilinski would be featured in it. If anything, Hilinski and Werner got a head start on some things for the future as the visit was more about getting Hilinski acclimated with South Carolina than a "recruiting trip" since he's already committed. Werner went over clips from the entire spring game, discussed several concepts that Carolina uses, and went over terminology that the Gamecocks use as well. It was a great learning experience for Hilinski, he said.
We were told by sources that Hilinski was essentially "already a part of the team" this weekend and he confirmed that notion to us as well. We've mentioned that there's a certain natural leadership quality about Hilinski and his future teammates already seem to be gravitating to the idea of playing with him. Both Jake Bentley and Michael Scarnecchia served as Hilinski's hosts and they did a good job of welcoming him into the football family.
Hilinski has made it well known his intentions to try and recruit others to join him in Columbia and he feels he's making progress in that area. He spent some time with five-star defensive end Zacch Pickens on this weekend's trip (Gamecocks are still in great shape there according to what I'm hearing) and also helped work new 2020 commit Tyshawn Wannamaker. I'm told that Hilinski has been in touch with five-star running back Quavaris Crouch and three-star tight end target Tyler Fromm. Fromm told Hilinski that he was the first quarterback recruit to make the effort to reach out and work on him and that went a long way. Interestingly, Hilinski also Facetimed five-star cornerback Chris Steele from his official visit this past weekend.
** South Carolina offensive coordinator Bryan McClendon will make the trip to California on Wednesday to watch Hilinski throw at his school. Not coincidentally, McClendon will also check out Hilinski's teammate, four-star wide receiver Kyle Ford, who the Gamecocks also offered earlier this month.
** Speaking of Chris Steele, he previously confirmed publicly that he's going to take an official visit to South Carolina and it now looks like that visit will take place the first week of June. Steele was in LSU this past weekend for his official visit there. There's not much else new to say here, other than that Carolina believes it's firmly in the mix for the big-timer.
** One of the more interesting notes from South Carolina's recruiting weekend was the implementation of the video game Fortnite as one of the activities. I made note of this earlier, but just for a little context, the game is probably the most popular game in the country right now as the craze has made its way to college campuses everywhere. The viral sensation game drops the player into a battle royale situation with 99 other players (also controlled by someone else somewhere else in the world) with only one player left standing. The game is already very popular among the current football players and really among about any group of high school or college-aged kids. The staff set up the game on some of its big screens from the practice fields. It's just another example of the football recruiting staff trying to think of anything to get an advantage and of implementing currently relevant activities into the recruiting experience.
** Cheraw (S.C.) class of 2020 defensive tackle Xavier McIver landed an early offer from South Carolina last summer and has been on campus multiple times since, most recently visiting for the spring game. McIver doesn't say much about recruiting, but the Gamecocks have made a positive early impression on him and he plans to be back for the OL/DL camp this summer. McIver is also hearing from schools like LSU, Tennessee and ECU.
BASKETBALL RECRUITING NOTE
** York Prep four-star center D.J. Burns is scheduled to take his official visit to South Carolina on the weekend of May 4-6 and is down to South Carolina and Tennessee, from what I've been told. I mentioned previously that Burns is looking at enrolling as part of the 2018 class -- while Burns has not publicly confirmed that yet, I expect him to end up doing just that. Burns has seen his recruitment pick up a great deal lately with a lot of schools calling him trying to get in, but my information says he's down to South Carolina and Tennessee. Tennessee was the long-time favorite but the Gamecocks have momentum and location on their side. The official visit will be huge.
FOOTBALL TEAM NOTES
** One thing that's mentioned to us a great deal now is just how much extra work this team gets in now compared to when Will Muschamp and Co. first arrived in Columbia. An anecdote was shared with us recently about how 25-plus players were in the weight room on Saturday - a day that they hadn't been asked to come in at all - to get in extra work on their own. That was unheard of during Year 1 of the Muschamp era. Most of the team has bought into the culture that Muschamp is trying to create and the ones that don't seem to ultimately find their way to the transfer block.
** True freshman early enrollee Israel Mukuamu was singled out to us recently as someone who has been doing his job to get in extra work in the weight room. As we've mentioned since he signed, Mukuamu is extremely talented but needs to add weight in order to hold up on the edge in SEC competition. Mukuamu impressed the staff with his play this spring and his emergence may allow them to play Keisean Nixon at nickel with Mukuamu sliding into a starting cornerback spot in the nickel package, which is what the staff did in the spring game.
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