VIDEO BREAKDOWN: IMPACT 5-star Dylan Stewart
2024 5-star EDGE Dylan Stewart pledged to the Gamecocks today, and Wes and Kendall are here to break it down.
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MORE: South Carolina football’s blue-chip ratio after Dylan Stewart’s commitment
By Collyn Taylor
After a relatively quiet July, South Carolina is starting the month of August off with a bang.
The Gamecocks landed arguably the biggest get of the Shane Beamer era to date with Dylan Stewart hopping in the boat Tuesday morning.
He becomes the first five-star commitment in the 2024 class, a five-star in all four major services and the tenth-best player regardless of position according to On3.
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It helps South Carolina’s momentum towards a potential top-15, top-10 class and towards a class able to compete with some of the better ones in terms of the SEC with its blue chip ratio.
Historically, the teams with the more talented roster in terms of four or five-star players win at the highest level. The percent of your roster full of blue-chip talent, the more likely success is.
So where does this Gamecocks class stack up? Decently well in terms of blue-chip ratio and average player rating.
For starters, South Carolina has 15 commitments so far in the 2024 class. Of those, 60 percent of those considered blue-chip prospects.
That’s way up for both the 2023 and 2022 classes–the two full cycles Beamer’s had at South Carolina–with plenty of targets still on the board.
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The 2023 class had 50 percent of the 24 commitments considered blue-chip prospects. Only 23 percent of the class in 2022 were blue-chip prospects.
And for 2024, it’s spread out to both sides of the ball. Stewart is the headliner at No. 10 overall in the On3 Industry Rankings. He’s a five-star plus prospect and the No. 2 EDGE player in the country according to the Industry Rankings.
But the Gamecocks have two blue-chip offensive linemen who are considered top 100 prospects in the Industry Rankings.
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Josiah Thompson and Kam Pringle are both four-star tackles with Thompson the No. 47 player in the Industry Rankings and Pringle the No. 60 player. On3’s Industry Rankings have Thompson as the third-ranked tackle nationally while Pringle sits at No. 5.
Tight end Michael Smith (No. 106 overall, No. 10 TE), EDGE Wendell Gregory (No. 166, No. 9), receiver Mazeo Bennett (No. 187, No. 31 WR) and safety Kelvin Hunter (No. 199 overall, No. 16 S) all sit in the top 200.
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Four of those players–Thompson, Pringle, Bennett and Hunter–are from South Carolina. Four-star quarterback Dante Reno is also a blue-chipper. He sits at No. 360 overall in the Industry Rankings and as the No. 23 quarterback.
Cornerback Braydon Lee–also from the DMV area–comes in at No. 369 in the Industry Rankings and as the No. 34 overall cornerback.
South Carolina’s class moved up to No. 17 nationally after Stewart’s commitment with a score of 90.099. But, in terms of average player rating, the class sits much higher.
The Gamecocks rank No. 10 nationally in average player rating at 90.10, which is seventh-best in the SEC. The only other non-SEC schools included are Ohio State, Southern Cal and Clemson.
