Shane Beamer, Pete Lembo welcome 'late bloomer' in Tyshawn Russell
Tyshawn Russell was a late, but welcomed, addition to South Carolina’s 2023 recruiting class.
Russell is a three-star athlete, with experience playing defensive back and wide receiver, from Bishop McDevitt in Harrisburg, Penn.
The Gamecocks offered Rusell on Oct. 14, his first Power 5 offer and his third overall. He didn’t wait long to commit to South Carolina, pulling the trigger right before national signing day, two short months after the initial offer.
During a meeting with Russell and his parents, Shane Beamer said he was shocked that the offer from South Carolina didn’t lead to more offers. At the time of Russell’s commitment, Virginia Tech was the only other Power 5 school to offer Russell.
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“I assumed once we offered (he’d) end up having 40 offers and before it was all said and done, he didn’t,” Beamer said. “I can’t speak for other schools but I’m glad he’s a Gamecock.”
Special teams coordinator Pete Lembo is in charge of recruiting in the Northeast, thus making him Russell’s main recruiter, alongside Justin Stepp. Lembo called Russell a “late bloomer” and said he was a sleeper in this year’s class, especially in the age of social media and modern recruiting.
“A guy gets an offer somewhere and before you know it, he’s got 15 other offers because somebody just saw that you offered so they’re going to offer and get in the hunt,” Lembo said. “It’s refreshing to know that there are still some sleepers out there, late bloomers, guys that get opportunities because they had great senior years.”
Russell helped lead Bishop McDevitt to a state championship this year. He had a whopping four touchdowns in the school’s 48-10 victory over Aliquippa in the PIAA 4A state championship.
His senior year was his first playing full-time on the offensive side of the ball, something that may have contributed to him being underrecruited, Beamer said.
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“He’s a really, really talented defensive back and that was where he was spending the majority of his time,” Beamer said. “Then he moved over to offense this year and had a more active role on offense, but he’s also on a team that has some other highly recruited receivers on it.”
That doesn’t mean that Russell was an afterthought on his own team’s offense though, Beamer stressed. Russell caught 61 passes for Bishop McDevitt this year for over 1,300 yards and also brought in 22 touchdowns.
Beamer said he sees a lot of Juice Wells in Russell – even though Wells has a few inches on Russell.
The Gamecocks leading receiver in 2022 hosted Russell on his official visit, something Beamer laughed about, saying it was “a joke in itself”.
“This is a compliment, he’s got a lot of Juice Wells qualities in him,” Beamer said. “… They are very similar in a lot of ways. I talked about Juice having a lot of dog in him, you guys have probably heard me say that before, and Tyshawn I think is the same way. He’s just a really good football player.”
