It's move-in day for South Carolina football newcomers
South Carolina football newcomer move-in day has officially arrived.
Most of the rest of the Gamecocks’ 2022 signing class is scheduled to arrive in Columbia on Wednesday to begin college life with other newcomers trickling in by the weekend in order to begin classes — and summer workouts — next week.
“I’m excited about the week, it’s great to get them here,” South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer said Tuesday in Florence on the Welcome Home Tour. “I’ll be able to meet with them and visit with them (today). And then they all go through an orientation-type process, kind of through the weekend and then we’ll have a team meeting on Monday night and get ready to hit the ground running on Tuesday with classes and workouts and all that.”
Beamer said that he expects “pretty much a full group” to be on campus this week with three or four signees shuffling in a little later due to graduation timing.
While Beamer didn’t get into specifics, Gamecock Central touched base with the prospects (or someone close to them) this week and was told that the following high school signees are all planning to move in by Saturday: QB Tanner Bailey, LB Stone Blanton, WR Landon Samson, DB Kajuan Banks, DB Keenan Nelson Jr., WR/TE Zavier Short, OL Cason Henry, DB Emory Floyd, WR Kylic Horton, DB Nick Emmanwori, OL Grayson Mains and EDGE Bryan Thomas Jr.
Transfer wide receiver Corey Rucker, who joined the program via Arkansas State, Tweeted on Monday that he had arrived in Columbia while tight end transfers Austin Stogner and Nate Adkins are expected in Columbia on Wednesday (today) and Thursday, respectively.
Offensive tackle signee Ryan Brubaker will graduate from high school on June 3 and will arrive in Columbia on June 14. Defensive tackle signee Demetrius Watson told GC that he believes his move-in date is June 14 as well. Barring any last second snags, that would mean the whole signing class would be officially moved in at that point.
“They all want to come in, they all want to play early, so we’re gonna give them every opportunity to,” Beamer continued. “The biggest thing for them, one, it’s getting acclimated to everything academically, things move at a faster pace, some of these guys are gonna get here, and they’re gonna find out that their lifting group is at 7:30 a.m. the next morning, and we don’t ease them in anything.”
While the seven freshmen and six transfers who enrolled in time to go through spring practice will certainly have a head start on the players arriving in the summer, the new Gamecocks will benefit from new NCAA guidelines that allow the coaches to spend time with players in June and July and to actually involve a football during those workouts.
In particular, that should give the newcomers an easier process in learning the playbook.
“Great for the transition, that they’re able to have a whole summer to get acclimated and the way that the NCAA has structured things, we’re able to do a little bit more with them now,” Beamer said. “So if you’re an incoming freshman that wasn’t here for spring practice, it’s so beneficial for you because we’ll be able to do more football activities with them — meetings, on-the-field work — than we’ve ever been able to do. So you really got the whole month of June, the whole month of July. If you utilize it the right way — trying to learn the offense, learn the defense, learn the special teams — it’s really like two spring practices or two rounds of installation because you’ll do it the whole month of June, the whole month of July. And then you get it again in the month of August. So it’s great for those guys.”
Move-in day is a special time for all involved.
It’s the start of something new, a fresh chapter, but also the closing of another chapter. It’s an exciting time but also a challenging time. So while the South Carolina staff will throw plenty at the freshmen in the coming months, they’ll also do so being fully aware of how difficult the transition can be.
“Early on, I’m very cognizant of, most of them may have been in school like literally yesterday, and they’re going to be on a college campus here (today),” Beamer said. “So being very cognizant of that. I don’t know what you guys did, but when I graduated high school, I went to the beach with the buddies for a week, and you had a little bit of time before you started school. These guys, because of when we start summer school here at Carolina, there’s no rest for them, so being very cognizant of that. There’ll be some sad moms (today) that, I feel for them, and, but it’s an exciting time as well. And I’m excited. It’s a really good group of young men that we recruited and signed and really eager to get them on campus here this week and get going with them.”
