Major Gamecocks target set to announce tonight
A major Gamecocks target and the nation’s top junior college defensive lineman, Elijah Davis, plans on announcing his final choice on social media at 8:00 p.m. Tuesday night.
The Scooba (Mississippi) East Mississippi Community College product played his high school ball at Wagener-Salley in the Palmetto State.
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Since entering the junior college ranks, Davis has accumulated an impressive offer list. The likes of Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee all extended scholarships. The 6-foot-4, 300-pounder took official visits to Columbia to check out the Gamecocks and Knoxville to see the Volunteers.
For USC, defensive line coach Jimmy Lindsey and area recruiter Jody Wright have led the charge in the pursuit of Davis.
“Our relationship is good, talk to them almost every week, just to keep updated about what’s going on and stuff,” Davis told GamecockCentral.com back in October. “They were saying they need a guy like me, just to come in, and plug and play — Zacch Pickens is leaving.”
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The South Carolina Gamecocks currently lead the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine (RPM) for Davis, with over a 96 percent chance to land him.
On3’s RPM factors in machine learning, expert predictions, social sentiment, visits, and historical trends, with expert predictions a significant part of the equation.
According to a scouting report from On3’s Charles Power, Davis “is a disruptive defensive lineman with the ability to line up at various spots along the front.”
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South Carolina head football coach Shane Beamer’s building of the USC program in terms of culture, as well as his personality, seem to hold appeal for Davis.
“I like him a lot,” Davis said in a prior interview with GamecockCentral.com. “He’s cool. You can tell he’s a family guy, that’s a thing that I like. Keeping the coaches connected to the players, that’s something I really look at.”
On3 ranks Davis as the nation’s number three junior college prospect regardless of position. He is also tabbed as the top defensive lineman in the country from the JUCO ranks, and as the second-best prospect in the state of Mississippi.
Davis is expected to sign his letter of intent on Wednesday morning. He is a December graduate from East Mississippi, meaning he can enroll early at the program of his choosing and go through spring practice in 2023.
