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Justin Stepp excited to get two high school signees on campus

On3 imageby: Collyn Taylor03/23/22collyntaylor

South Carolina’s Justin Stepp knows the receiver group he’s working with this spring is nowhere near complete at the moment.

The Gamecocks also bring some productive guys back—most notably leading receiver Josh Vann—but two of their signees aren’t even on campus yet.

Landon Samson is one of those, a highly touted freshman receiver who Stepp can’t wait to get on campus this summer.

“He’s really smart,” Stepp said. “He works really hard. Obviously, he’ll have to earn everything he gets when he gets here but if I didn’t think he could do it I wouldn’t have recruited him.” 

Stepp used his connections in Texas from his time coaching at SMU and then Arkansas to land Samson, who committed without taking a visit to South Carolina.

Samson was also an All-American at Southlake Carroll, a powerhouse in Texas and now comes to South Carolina.

“Landon comes from one of the best high school programs in the country. His head coach Riley Dodge has played at this level and was a GA at this level. He does a great job with those kids, man,” Stepp said. “That’s one of the best things about getting a kid from that level in Texas. I’m not saying it’s the SEC, obviously. But he’s played a lot of really good football.”

Fellow signee Kylic Horton, who will get on campus this summer as well, will also join Samson in the receiver room.

Horton, who plays at Clarendon Hall, is a multi-sport athlete and someone the Gamecocks are incredibly high on as he begins his South Carolina career.  

“You want to talk about just a freak athlete,” Stepp said. “I can help you run routes, I can help you with catching the football. The jumping and all that stuff and natural ball skills and the athletic ability that kid has, that’s hard for me to do all that. He’s gifted. He’s really, really gifted. I’m excited to get him and see what he can do. From an athletic standpoint the sky’s the limit for him.”

On3 lists Horton at 6-foot-3 and also 190 pounds currently. Stepp thinks once he gets into South Carolina’s weight room and nutrition program things will begin to take off.

“That kid, I don’t even think he knows how good he can be with his frame,” Stepp said. “He goes to football to basketball to track to baseball. My man hasn’t even had an offseason of true lifting. Not even to say he hasn’t eaten like we eat here. There’s no telling the growth he can have in his first six months here.”

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