Gamecocks' recruiting
DT Christian Ingram (6-6 280) of Covington, GA has seen his recruitment take off in recent weeks with offers from Clemson, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Colorado, Michigan, Florida State and Kentucky.
Last week, he added South Carolina to the list after a phone call with defensive line coach Travian Robertson.
"I just started talking with them, and he offered me when I just kind of started talking to him," Ingram said."He had talked to my coach the other day about me, just how well I am in the classroom, my leadership mentality, how hard I work and my physical attributes."
Ingram is also a high-level basketball player, and that's something else Robertson liked about him.
"He likes that I am a two-sport athlete," Ingram said. "He likes D-linemen who are two-sport athletes. A lot of his guys he coaches at South Carolina like to play basketball. He likes my background in that. He said he likes to coach tall, long and athletic guys."
Ingram had not thought much at all about USC from a recruiting standpoint. He had never visited there for a camp, a recruiting event or a game. The offer came out of the blue.
"I definitely consider this a big-time offer," Ingram said. "Jadeveon Clowney, I liked watching him when he was at South Carolina, and if they feel like I have the right attributes to be in their defense, it means a lot to me."
Ingram has set an official visit to USC for November 23rd. He is also talking with Clemson defensive line coach Nick Eason about an official visit with the Tigers. He visited there a couple of weeks ago for the NC State game.
"I love Clemson. It was definitely fun being down in Death Valley seeing them take on NC State," Ingram said. "Their defensive line had like four sacks in that game, so it was definitely a good showing for sure."
Ingram has also been to games this season at Georgia, Alabama and Auburn. He has set other official visits with Kentucky October 26th, Michigan November 2nd, Georgia November 16th and Vanderbilt November 30th. He said he's been talking the most with Kentucky, Michigan and Georgia but does not have a leader at this point since his recruiting is picking up.
One of the prospects on hand as South Carolina took on Ole Miss was center Jimmy Bryson (6-3 280) of Chattanooga, where his coach is former Hammond head coach and USC quarterback and assistant Erik Kimrey.
Last week, the Gamecocks offered Bryson. The connection between Kimrey and his alma mater helped grease the wheels for the Gamecocks when they started recruiting Bryson last summer.
Offensive line coach Lonnie Teasley has been in regular contact and worked to get him in for the visit last weekend. Bryson was glad he visited.
"South Carolina needs a center, and hopefully I can be their guy," Bryson said. "I liked everything about it. I loved the energy from it."
"I loved the energy the coaches bring from it. I thought it was a special place to be. I love that Sandstorm that the fans bring. I thought that was crazy. I can't wait to see that again."
Bryson, of course, watched Teasley work with his offensive linemen. "I loved it. I actually loved it," Bryson said. "Coach Teasley, I think he's a great coach. I have a good connection with him. I love what they're doing."
Bryson also got the chance to talk with head coach Shane Beamer while on the visit and came away with a positive message from him. "It was great," he said. "Coach Beamer, he loves his O-linemen. I really felt the love with him and loved their conversation.
"He said they are building something special, and he wants me to be a part of it. He wants me to be their guy."
Bryson made an official visit to Georgia Tech in early June and committed right after, cancelling four other official visits he had scheduled. Tech still wants him and is continuing to recruit him hard as well.
"Right now, I'm still 100 percent committed," Bryson said. "Still talking to a couple of schools, such as South Carolina obviously, but still committed. I've also visited Kentucky and Missouri. Like I said, I'm still committed with Tech. That's all I really have to say about that, still committed"
Bryson does plan to take an official visit to USC for the Texas A&M weekend. His other offers have been from UAB, Appalachian State, Army and Air Force.
Tigers' recruiting
2026 TE Tayveon Wilson (6-3 205 of Huntington, WV) visited Clemson for the Stanford game returning for the first time since the summer. Wilson, who was a reported standout at Dabo Swinney's high school camp in June, spent most of his time with tight ends coach Kyle Richardson during that period.
Weeks later, the Tigers came calling with an offer, and they have continued building a relationship. "It's definitely grown a lot through phone calls and FaceTimes because after the camp, he didn't offer me directly there in person," Wilson said.
"Coach Richardson actually called me two weeks later, and then he offered me. So, we've just been texting and calling at least once or two times a week since then. And yeah, the connection has grown. It definitely got better since I get to see them in person again."
Wilson's community was impacted by Hurricane Helene, but the prospect was still able to make the trip to Clemson and take in the gameday experience for the first time. Wilson said he was "shocked" by the environment and came away impressed with how the community showed up in big numbers for the game.
"With all the weather issues, I personally didn't think a lot of people would be there, but everybody showed up," he exclaimed. "It looked packed from where I was sitting. And yeah, that just shows how committed the fans are in the community."
Wilson believes his visit with the Tigers was successful. He feels his relationship with Clemson is in a good spot, but he hopes one more visit can elevate it to another level.
"I feel like I'm definitely in a good spot if I could get down there again," Wilson said. "I feel like the relationship would just keep growing within seeing each other in person rather than phone calls and text messages every other day."
As Wilson's recruitment rolls along, he currently doesn't have a timeline set for when he wants to commit and hasn't made plans to release any top lists anytime soon. Some of his other offers are Louisville, Marshall, Appalachian State, Penn State, Miami, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Arkansas, Illinois, NC State and USF.
Along with Clemson, Wilson has been to games this season at West Virginia and Virginia Tech. Regarding Clemson's standing, he said the Tigers are in a solid position. "Without a doubt, they're definitely within my top five for sure." As a sophomore, Wilson caught 27 passes for 588 yards and 11 touchdowns.
Notes
Earlier this month, Irmo WR Donovan Murph (6-3 180) went from a hot commodity in the 2026 class to a hotter commodity in the 2025 class. He already had numerous Power Four level verbal offers, and now the schools can send him the official offer documents since he is now in his final season of high school ball.
Some of the other offers for Murph include USC, Alabama, Miami, Indiana, Maryland, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Georgia Tech, Penn State, Virginia Tech, NC State, North Carolina, Tennessee, Auburn, Florida, Wisconsin and Arkansas.
Murph has been to games at Clemson and USC this season. He is scheduled to go to Tennessee for the Alabama game on the 19th, and then the following weekend he is scheduled for a visit to Texas A&M. He is expected to schedule some of his official visits in the near future.
USC commitment WR Jordon Gidron also reported his official offer from USC arrived last week.
USC is in the top five with 2026 WR Ryan Mosley of Carrollton, GA. He is looking at the end of October or early November on a decision. The others in his top group are Georgia, Ohio State, Alabama and Auburn. He said the list is fluid and could change. Clemson is another school he's looking hard at and he has visited both USC and Clemson this season.
Hale McGranahan of TheBigSpur reported Virginia Tech commit RB Jeffery Overton visited USC for the Ole Miss game; as did 2027 OL Gabe Prince of Atlanta.
USC offered 2026 CB Khary Adams (6-2 180) of Baltimore. 2027 RB David Georges (6-0 190) of Chattanooga and 2027 DE Andrew Rogers (6-6 240) of Greensboro, NC.
Clemson target SAF Jordan Young of Monroe, NC was back at NC State Saturday for a fourth game this season. He plans to visit Michigan in two weeks. He visited Clemson for the NC State game.
Clemson target OG Nelson McGuire of Midlothian, TX committed to Texas A&M. He was originally committed to Minnesota.
Clemson and USC target DT Christian Ingram was offered by Florida State.
Clemson target LB Storm Miller was offered by Penn State.
USC target 2026 WR Ty Evans of Charlotte was offered by Florida State.
One-time Clemson target OT Mario Nash, who decommitted from Mississippi State earlier in the week, committed to Florida State.
USC commitment WR Lex Cyrus of Pennsylvania visited Penn State two weekends ago.
Clemson targets 2026 LB Tyler Atkinson and 2026 DT Bryce Perry-Wright planned to visit Southern Cal this past weekend.
Clemson target 2026 OT Adam Guthrie planned to visit Tennessee Saturday.
USC and Clemson targets 2026 OT Carter Scruggs of Leesburg VA and 2026 OT Bear McWhorter of Cartersville, GA planned to visit Alabama Saturday.
2026 OL Steven Pickard of Charleston and IMG Academy planned to visit NC State Saturday.
Blythewood DT Sterling Sanders was offered by Boston College. He has been committed to Georgia Southern since June.
On3 recruiting analyst Steve Wiltfong has logged an expert prediction for Alabama to flip 2025 North Carolina TE commit Marshall Pritchet who is a native of Charleston.
6-2 Ayla McDowell of Houston is down to USC, LSU, TCU, Georgia Tech, Florida and Mississippi State. She plans to announce on the 24th. She made her OV to USC last weekend.
Basketball news
6-7 Grant Polk of Washington, DC made his commitment announcement Monday to USC.
USC head coach Lamont Paris and his staff see Polk as the final piece to a highly regarded recruiting class for 2025. They gave him plenty of reason to feel good about his opportunities in Columbia.
"I definitely really enjoyed my time there, as expected," Polk said."The football game, although they lost, the atmosphere was as good as it can be. It was my first SEC game ever, and it was everything that I heard it was going to be. That was a fun part of the weekend, but what I enjoyed most was spending time with Coach Paris and his staff.
"He really did a good job of showing me how my skill set would fit into how they play at South Carolina. I also learned a lot by watching them practice." In watching that practice, Polk saw an offensive scheme that would work very well for him.
"They don't really have like a set offense. They just play good basketball," Polk said. "Coach Paris mentioned a lot that he likes an offense where they pass more than they dribble and create a lot of spacing."
Polk also enjoyed meeting the USC players and building an early relationship with some of them. "Cam (Scott) came to dinner with us both nights and I got to hang out with him a decent amount of time," Polk said. "All the players were very likeable. Every time I saw them, they all came up and dabbed me up. They seem like a good group of guys."
Polk is regarded as a premier outside shooting threat. He made 87-three pointers last season while averaging 19 points and six rebounds per game.
Baseball news
2026 LHP Spencer Krasner (6-3 185) of Cooper City, FL and 2026 LHP Colton Semmelmann of Brookfield, WI committed to USC.