Boyd commits: Its a dream come true
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Once South Carolina became involved recently with Rancho Cucamonga (California) Chaffey safety Toure Boyd, he was just waiting on his offer to become official to pull the trigger on a commitment.
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Boyd landed his offer on Wednesday, and the 6-foot-1, 190-pounder jumped on the opportunity. The Alabama native pledged to South Carolina on Thursday afternoon, giving the Gamecock staff an experienced prospect with talent at a position of need.
"It's always been a life-long dream of mine to get back to the SEC since I'm from Birmingham, so I've always wanted to go back to play in the highest conference," Boyd said. "And South Carolina has a huge track record of getting players to the NFL, and that's another thing I see myself capable of doing. Me getting recruited by South Carolina is an accomplishment in my life. Even though they already are a good program, I see them as an up-and-coming dark horse program for the conference."
Boyd, who is three-star prospect with a 5.6 rating from Rivals.com, was recruited to Carolina by secondary coach Grady Brown, who is looking for someone who can play right away.
"We're both from Birmingham, Ala., so me and him have a cool little relationship that we started these last couple of weeks," Boyd said of Brown. "I'm really looking forward to playing for him. He seems like he's a players' coach. He played the game. He's been at several universities. He came from a small school, so him being at South Carolina now, that actually gives me the chance to play for somebody who is equipped with handling a player from a smaller background. He's giving me a chance. It seems like he's going to give everybody a chance. I like that about him."
Boyd, who also claims offers from Arizona, Southern Miss and Washington State, saw his recruitment from the Gamecocks pick up in a hurry. Boyd says he first spoke with the Gamecocks last Tuesday when he contacted graduate assistant Mark Orphey and that the process moved on from there.
"I talked to Coach Orphey the first couple of days that they were recruiting me and he was the guy that was getting my information," Boyd said. "I respect Coach Orphey, because he was one of the guys that found out about me. He handed my film over to Coach Brown and he got the ball rolling for me. He believed in me and saw my talent."
Earlier Wednesday, Boyd spoke with South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier, who had a special message for him.
Click Here to view this Link."That was a life-long accomplishment. That was a real eye-opener," Boyd said. "It showed me that I can be who I want to be, but I just need to keep grinding. Coach Spurrier basically expressed to me that he doesn't even usually watch junior college players' film, but he happened to see my film and he liked what he saw and he liked that I'm a good tackler, and he thinks that I am what they need to come into this program. He thinks if I come into the program and do everything that I need to do, then there's a great chance that I can be a starter."
Boyd says he's had similar conversations with Brown.
"He's explained to me that all I have to do is come in and live up to my expectations," Boyd said. "I've got to come in and grind hard, and ball, and do everything that I need to do to get myself in that position. I'll come in as the No. 1 or No. 2 guy at my position, it's just about what I do with it. I know a lot of coaches say stuff like that all the time, so I'm going to come in and compete and go hard for myself, because they're going to put the best player on the field regardless."
Boyd will have three to play two at the college level. As a sophomore for Chaffey, he played in 11 games and tallied 80 tackles, 10 pass breakups, forced two fumbles, intercepted two passes (one for a touchdown), and blocked five kicks.
Boyd will take his official visit to South Carolina the weekend of January 23.
"It's a dream come true," Boyd added. "My mindset is I need to go into this, not thinking, 'Oh, I just got offered,' I need to go into this thinking, 'I've got work to do.' I made it, and I made one of my objectives, but now I'm just another step closer to my goal that I ultimately want to get to."
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