Gamecocks recruiting Northeast by design

It sounded a little odd coming out of Pete Lembo’s mouth, but it’s true.

South Carolina is the northern-most school in the SEC on the eastern seaboard and the closest school in the league to Washington D.C. and the surrounding areas.

While the Gamecocks haven’t necessarily delved deep into the DMV, Shane Beamer and his staff wants to change that and they’ve been delving deeper there and into the New England area.

“I’m very familiar with (the area) and have a lot of strong ties with high school coaches and know those programs and trying to bring some of those guys to the table,” Lembo said. “A good player is a good player. It doesn’t matter where he’s from. If he’s a guy who can help improve our roster we should be taking a look at him.”

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Using Google Maps, it takes a little over seven hours to get to Washington D.C., the quickest route by about 12 minutes with Knoxville, Tenn. a close second.

Because of that, the Gamecocks have made a concerted effort to get into the area and try to pluck some of the best talent out of there.

It’s worked recently, nabbing MarShawn Lloyd and Debo Williams out of Delaware the last two years, transfer Carlins Platel out of Massachusetts and could get better with Delaware four-star quarterback Braden Davis set to announce his decision Friday with South Carolina a finalist.

“We are the northern-most SEC school here on the east coast,” Lembo said. “For those guys from the DC area or Philly or New Jersey or central Pennsylvania, wherever it may be, it’s a pretty easy drive to get down here.”

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The Gamecocks have guys on staff with connections to the DMV area and the Northeast with Beamer obviously recruiting in Virginia at Virginia Tech and Lembo spending time at Lehigh and Maryland.

Lembo reiterated they may a lot mine the New England area as much as they do Washington D.C., Philadelphia and Virginia, but the goal is to continue bringing in those players if they’re good enough.

He also said a lot of times players either have family in the Carolinas or have visited before for vacation, and some of their friends or classmates are already at South Carolina.

“That’s familiar to them. They’re intrigued. Maybe their school hasn’t heard from South Carolina before and now we’re trying to get involved in those areas. It’s intriguing,” Lembo said.

“The other thing is about 25 percent of our student body comes from those areas right now. Those student athletes we’re potentially recruiting, our university is familiar to them because students from their high school have applied and, in some cases, come to school here.”

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It remains to be seen just how much the Gamecocks will mine the area—Beamer has championed wanting to keep talent in-state while also reaching into Georgia, North Carolina, Florida and other surrounding states—but it’s worked so far.

The Gamecocks have two commitments right now, both out of typical pipeline areas: Grayson Mains out of Georgia and Anthony Rose from Florida.

“First, I have been so impressed with how hard Shane’s been working in recruiting himself. He’s on it. He knows about the guys on our boards,” Lembo said. “He’s in constant contact with many, many, many of the guys we’re recruiting at all positions and building a relationship with those guys. It’s been so impressive with how hard he’s been personally working in recruiting everyday.”