South Carolina’s had a run of good running back coaches the last two seasons, and it’s reflected in the talent and depth in the room and a testament to how well the two previous coaches—Thomas Brown and Des Kitchings—recruited.

Both Brown and Kitchings are coaching in the NFL now and Montario Hardesty is hoping to continue the recruiting success and keep reeling in high-level running back talent to Columbia.

“The location we’re at, I feel like I can get the best backs in the country at South Carolina. That’s been proven. That’s been done,” Hardesty said. “The location for us to get recruits overall, we’re in a prime location. For me, it’s been good. It’s been a lot of Zooms and haven’t been able to get these guys in person yet.”

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Hardesty took over as the Gamecocks’ running backs coach in early February and immediately began hitting the recruiting trail hard trying to build relationships with prospects.

It’s been tougher for the coach who prefers having face-to-face conversations, having to recruit the first four months on the job via Zoom and FaceTime interactions.

He thinks it’s gone well, but he’s ready to get prospects on campus and see if he can’t reel in elite talent.

“We’ve been having a lot of the top recruits in the country getting on Zoom calls. We’re starting early relationships with guys,” Hardesty said. “We have good relationships with some of the top backs and some of the guys in my area. It’s coming along and once we get guys back in person they’ll be able to see and feel our new staff’s energy and it’ll be great.”

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Hardesty hasn’t shied away from wanting to bring in top running back talent and delving into the Southeast to get it.

He knows how important recruiting will be not only to the running back room but also the team as a whole and he wants to be part of that recruiting success, even developing his own little slogan for it.

“That’s going to be the lifeblood of our program,” Hardesty said. “Recruiting is something that’s big for me. I always got the pitch right here: recruits come home to Carolina.”

The Gamecocks have depth in the running back room Hardesty is over. Kevin Harris, who became the first Gamecock since 2013 to rush for over 1,000 yards in a season, leads the group but there’s also former five-star MarShawn Lloyd coming off an ACL tear.

They have ZaQuandre White—who was met with positive reviews this spring—but also Rashad Amos and incoming freshman Caleb McDowell.

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“Just in recruiting and how our backfield’s set up, they did a good job recruiting before I was here. Now it’s just diversifying that portfolio,” Hardesty said. “You want things to be a little bit different. It’s good guys all have different skillsets but with our we’re going to run our offense and how we’re run we have to get uniform in certain things.”

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