Southlake (Texas) Carroll class of 2022 three-star wide receiver Landon Samson announced a commitment today putting an end to a quick recruiting process between the big-play receiver and the Gamecocks.

South Carolina offered the 6-foot-1, 180-pounder on June 16 and by the time we talked to him on June 23, it already seemed like Samson was starting to lean towards a commitment to the Gamecocks.

Samson, who was considered a lean to Nebraska prior to the Carolina offer, set up an unofficial visit to South Carolina for the final week of July.

But after a "virtual visit" last Friday, an exhaustive look at the school and program that usually takes about an hour but expanded into an even more in-depth three-hour breakdown of the program, it seems that's all Samson needed to see before deciding he would be a Gamecock.

Justin Stepp deserves the credit here. He recruited the state of Texas during his time at SMU and at Arkansas and he's got a strong relationship with Carroll head coach Riley Dodge.

That helped in not only letting Stepp get an accurate feel for Samson from an evaluation standpoint but also helped in letting Samson quickly get comfortable with the Gamecocks' wide receivers coach.

The virtual visit, we're told, couldn't have gone any better. Samson and his family loved the plan from OC Marcus Satterfield and the off-the-field guidance presented by Derrick Moore as well as the overall feel of the whole staff.

On the field, Samson is already a pretty developed wide receiver prospect who should be far enough along to make an early impact. Once they took a look at him, he was a no-brainer offer and quickly became a priority. With how quick it moved, this is a situation where both sides had such strong interest that it was just a natural fit.

Samson was incredibly productive as a junior, earning Texas District 4-6A Offensive Player of the Year honors with 74 receptions for 1,293 yds and 15 touchdowns.

With Samson and Kylic Horton in the boat, Carolina's receiver class is starting to take shape. I see Samson as someone who could find the field early and Horton as someone who could take some time to adjust to SEC play but also offers NFL-level upside in his pure athleticism.

With two commits, Carolina can afford to get selective with its remaining takes at the position. Four-star WRs Antonio Williams, Jayden Gibson and Dane Key are the ones I'm primarily tracking right now.

For those tracking such things, Samson is the #WelcomeHome that Shane Beamer sent out on Tuesday morning. That means there are still three out there - the two from last Wednesday and the one from today.

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Interested to see what everyone thinks. My guess would be Zia Cooke.

😂

Need to use every asset and angle.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching you destroy vandy last two games. Well played and Well done!

Is GCC going to start getting players to endorse the site, and paying them for exclusive interviews/content?

I think he tweeted he’s a Gamecock

😁

Why wouldn't they ?

so im not looking to make this thread nsfw. however, been talking with some people about female athletes and the NIL. for example think of paige spiranac in pro golf. her main source of income(and fame) is instagram, not golf. many female athletes are going to make bank from their online accounts. followers equal clicks. clicks get you bucks. and admit it, attractive young females rule on instagram.

now get in the gutter with me a moment. for those who know, think about FansOnly.

if those who were around when playboy pulled models from USC coeds was a big deal....just wait

in a few years we may see male athletes complain about not making the money the women are making in college sports and need all new title 9 type regulations!

I agree athletes should be able to market themselves and get paid for NIL. This should be anyone's right.
My concern is that programs will now just pool as much money as they can together.. and pay every recruit as much as possible in order to get them to come to their program.
This can happen with all recruits.. regardless of the actual "value" of their brand. Any donor can pay a recruit whatever amount to market their brand... even if those products never actually sell.
So... programs with be most donors or boosters will be able to offer recruits more money for their NIL than the lesser program next door.
How in the world can you control this?
Should be interesting to see.

I’m assuming he’s retiring.

Swinney said. “But as far as paying players, professionalizing college athletics, that’s where you lose me. I’ll go do something else, because there’s enough entitlement in this world as it is.”

I wonder what he’s going to do.

Get ready! Shane Beamer Era! 2021!

Is this guy on here? Someone needs to record the TV broadcasts for YouTube in 2021! Watching now 2011 South Carolina vs Georgia 2011! Great Quality!

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UPDATED: There are currently still three #WelcomeHomes out there that have not yet been revealed.

The Landon Samson commit was Shane Beamer's Tweet from Tuesday. But of course Beamer put out another #WelcomeHome on Wednesday, that has not yet been revealed.

The Ryan Brubaker commit was Shane Beamer's Monday #WelcomeHome from the ATL airport.

There are still two other silent ones - two from last Wednesday - that haven't been revealed but will be public in July.

Simple

Is he a priority recruit? Is a lean to the Gamecocks? Any tidbits?

Happy for him finally making the NBA Finals
Suns have been the best team all year
56-14 last 70 games

I have also notice you get box scores in newspapers for football and basketball but not for baseball.

Congratulations to MSSU for winning their first national championship in any sport.

Will not spill the source but he is very tight with Stepp. Told me last night that Coach asked Dak, Otre and Davis to his office and he said they were acting very timid and nervous. He asked them why they were acting so odd and their collective response was, "we've never been asked up here before." My friend grew up in Pelion and coach stayed at his condo at stadium after he moved here. He said kid from St Francis is legit and that Jaylen Brooks catches everything that hits his hands. O'Tre seems poised to make a move this year and that Josh Vann catches balls well in practice. Thinks if they can get Dak the ball in the right plays and in space he could make some explosive plays.

One of my tennis friends is Ben Cook whom is the pro at Daniel Island Club. He played tennis at USC and he said the kicker stopped by his house last weekend and said Muschamp spoke to him 3x last year. He said Beamer eats 3 meals a day with the players. Walks around giving high fives to anybody in football ops building.

A little news we knew all along don't you think?

--South Carolina hosted their first official visitor in over 15 months, getting Christian Reeves on campus for a three-day official visit beginning Monday and ending earlier today, around noon. Reeves was able to obviously do his photoshoot and sit down with Frank Martin and the staff and get a feel for what the program is like along with the players. South Carolina is going through offseason workouts and had players on campus, so Reeves was able to see them and get a feel for the team. He'd been on campus before for visits and seen practice, so watching how Frank Martin ran things is nothing new to him but this was with a different staff than the last time with the additions of Will Bailey and Brian Steele.

From the feedback received, things went very well for South Carolina this weekend. There's always a baseline of how good an official visit goes, but South Carolina really did a great job this weekend positioning and solidifying themselves as one of the biggest players in the recruitment for Reeves. The 7-foot big man was always very serious about the Gamecocks and needless to say that didn't change after his official trip down to South Carolina.

Coming out of this weekend it looks like South Carolina will be in his recruitment for a while and could be one of the favorites to land him once he makes a decision. Reeves has iterated a few times before his official there really is no timeline for when he wants to cut down a list or make a decision. But getting him on campus for an unofficial visit at the beginning of June and then again a few weeks later for an official visit is certainly a good sign.

Chuck Martin's done a very good job in Reeves's recruitment and building a relationship with him and the family while staying on him during his high school career and through the pandemic and then it ramping up, obviously, now that he's entering his senior year, able to visit schools and coaches are able to go out see guys on the road.

Along with South Carolina, Virginia Tech is starting to show some major interest along with Clemson, Kansas, Purdue, a few others and Illinois called and inquired about him this week as well. We'll have more from Reeves on his official this week.

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--The Gamecocks hosted another priority D'Ante Bass last week for an unofficial visit, his second time on campus since recruiting opened up (he initially came down for team camp) and was impressed with the staff and what he saw from South Carolina's campus and facility. His unofficial was his first real chance to sit down with Frank Martin and talk, and he enjoyed Martin's upfront style of talking and recruiting, saying it was refreshing and he hadn't heard that bluntness from other coaches.

Bass has taken an unofficial to Georgia as well and, while I'm not ruling out other schools potentially jumping into the mix and trying to amp things up, but his recruitment at this stage seems to be centered around the Gamecocks and Bulldogs. I wouldn't be shocked if Bass takes officials to both after the July dead and live periods sometime in maybe August and September. Brian Steele is his lead recruiter.

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--South Carolina hosted 2023 small forward Comeh Emuobor for an unofficial visit last week. Emuobor hit up South Carolina after coming through Columbia post Georgia and Georgia Tech unofficial visits as well. He left pretty impressed with it as well.

"It was great," he said, "beautiful campus I could tell the program is built on togetherness it seems like one big family." It was also his first time to meet head coach Frank Martin and sit down to talk with him as well, saying Martin game off very "genuine" and the conversation didn't feel like a recruiting pitch.

There should be more on Emuobor this week as well. Another name to at least keep an eye on during the evaluation period.

--The Gamecocks hosted two more North Carolina unofficial visitors today, almost concurrently in Wesley Tubbs III and Mike Nwoko. Tubbs was on campus this morning and overlapped some with Nwoko, who came on campus a little later in the day. Tubbs has taken unofficial visits to Louisville and Wake Forest as well, while Nwoko has seen his recruitment gain a little bit of traction with offers from Wake and recently from Houston.

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Explains the hardships they went through and how they became close friends. I'm looking forward to seeing some different results out of our S&C program.

How a year away from football brought Luke Day and Chip Morton to South Carolina