I reiterated to you all that the June 8 edition of the Insider Report that the possibility of South Carolina resigning JUCO DE Jhaustin Thomas was very much in play, even if he was a summer graduate. Of course, the ideal scenario is for Thomas to complete his academic work at Trinity Valley and be able to enroll at South Carolina next January and go through spring practice. USC needs some defensive ends in this class that can contribute early. The final decision has not been made on Thomas but again, it's definitely on the table.
I actually spoke with Thomas this past week to get his take on things and he still wants to go to South Carolina. Thomas told me that he is now around 275 pounds. I cannot verify that, but one of his coaches did tell me last season he was in that range and another source I spoke with that's close to him told me he had really started filling out size-wise. Thomas suffered an injury last season in which his vertebrae was out of line, but he's fine now. Arizona State, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Ole Miss, and Oklahoma State have all checked in on him since he's been at Trinity Valley. This summer, Thomas will be taking summer classes to try to get ready for December graduation.
If you missed it, here is the following update from Rivals.com's Mike Farrell from Wednesday morning that gives more detail on the reasoning behind the changeup in his list.
To give a short recap, I told you all on Tuesday that Virginia Tech had fallen down (which was a surprise given they had been a leader or co-leader the entire time) and that South Carolina was behind several others including probably Alabama and Florida. At the time of our initial report, Hand had not talked about the change publicly so we limited the amount of information we released, but I can tell you that South Carolina (and I assume VT) had already been notified at that point they were out of the running. Hand did get in contact with Deke Adams and G.A. Mangus and explain everything to them and he's also talked with Bud Foster from Virginia Tech before releasing this information publicly, so kudos to him for doing that.
Several visitors from Jacksonville (Fla.) Trinity Christian and one from Jacksonville (Fla.) Raines will visit South Carolina on Wednesday and you can get the full list of names here. I did want to take a minute to highlight a few that I believe should be watched where South Carolina is concerned.
2015 LB Sherrod Pittman has USC in his top five. He's an early lean in-state to Florida and then Florida State, but South Carolina is in the mix.
2016 RB Ben Edwards, neither has an offer at this point.
Speaking of DBs, an update on a couple of 2014 guys from Florida here that do have South Carolina offers: As I mentioned on Tuesday night, Hallandale (Fla.) cornerback John Battle will visit USC this Thursday. It will be his first trip to Columbia. Battle visited LSU on Monday and Tennessee on Tuesday; he also plans on hitting Louisville and NC State on this road trip. At this stage, battle is still open but Grady Brown and USC have a chance to impress on the visit tomorrow. The Gamecock staff ideally wants to sign three cornerbacks in the 2014 class.
Another Sunshine State DB that Brown is after is Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) University School's Quincy Wilson. Wilson is set to hit the road over the next couple of months to check out some schools and some camps and I was able to get his schedule for you all to check out here. Beginning today and lasting until June 15, Wilson will be at Notre Dame. From June 15-16, he's visiting Ohio State. On June 24-30, he's going to Southern California and UCLA. On July 14-17, he's seeing Alabama and LSU. Finally, from July 20-27 he's going to Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
Wilson is intrigued by South Carolina and the Gamecocks are on his current top 12 list. The group includes several of the schools he visits this summer: UCLA, Southern Cal, Ohio State, LSU, Alabama, NC State, Florida, Tennessee, Notre Dame, Louisville and Vanderbilt.
I actually spoke with Thomas this past week to get his take on things and he still wants to go to South Carolina. Thomas told me that he is now around 275 pounds. I cannot verify that, but one of his coaches did tell me last season he was in that range and another source I spoke with that's close to him told me he had really started filling out size-wise. Thomas suffered an injury last season in which his vertebrae was out of line, but he's fine now. Arizona State, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Ole Miss, and Oklahoma State have all checked in on him since he's been at Trinity Valley. This summer, Thomas will be taking summer classes to try to get ready for December graduation.
If you missed it, here is the following update from Rivals.com's Mike Farrell from Wednesday morning that gives more detail on the reasoning behind the changeup in his list.
To give a short recap, I told you all on Tuesday that Virginia Tech had fallen down (which was a surprise given they had been a leader or co-leader the entire time) and that South Carolina was behind several others including probably Alabama and Florida. At the time of our initial report, Hand had not talked about the change publicly so we limited the amount of information we released, but I can tell you that South Carolina (and I assume VT) had already been notified at that point they were out of the running. Hand did get in contact with Deke Adams and G.A. Mangus and explain everything to them and he's also talked with Bud Foster from Virginia Tech before releasing this information publicly, so kudos to him for doing that.
Several visitors from Jacksonville (Fla.) Trinity Christian and one from Jacksonville (Fla.) Raines will visit South Carolina on Wednesday and you can get the full list of names here. I did want to take a minute to highlight a few that I believe should be watched where South Carolina is concerned.
2015 LB Sherrod Pittman has USC in his top five. He's an early lean in-state to Florida and then Florida State, but South Carolina is in the mix.
2016 RB Ben Edwards, neither has an offer at this point.
Speaking of DBs, an update on a couple of 2014 guys from Florida here that do have South Carolina offers: As I mentioned on Tuesday night, Hallandale (Fla.) cornerback John Battle will visit USC this Thursday. It will be his first trip to Columbia. Battle visited LSU on Monday and Tennessee on Tuesday; he also plans on hitting Louisville and NC State on this road trip. At this stage, battle is still open but Grady Brown and USC have a chance to impress on the visit tomorrow. The Gamecock staff ideally wants to sign three cornerbacks in the 2014 class.
Another Sunshine State DB that Brown is after is Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) University School's Quincy Wilson. Wilson is set to hit the road over the next couple of months to check out some schools and some camps and I was able to get his schedule for you all to check out here. Beginning today and lasting until June 15, Wilson will be at Notre Dame. From June 15-16, he's visiting Ohio State. On June 24-30, he's going to Southern California and UCLA. On July 14-17, he's seeing Alabama and LSU. Finally, from July 20-27 he's going to Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
Wilson is intrigued by South Carolina and the Gamecocks are on his current top 12 list. The group includes several of the schools he visits this summer: UCLA, Southern Cal, Ohio State, LSU, Alabama, NC State, Florida, Tennessee, Notre Dame, Louisville and Vanderbilt.
