*** Thoughts on Jordan Burch...

Jordan Burch, the kid

First of all, and most importantly, we said this on the podcast Thursday, but it's very much worth repeating: if you talk to those who have spent a lot of time around Jordan Burch, they'll tell you that he's a phenomenal kid.

Due to the insulated nature of how his recruiting process played out, we never really got a chance to know Jordan as a person (and thus didn't really get to convey much of his personality to you as an audience).

But to reiterate what Chris said on Thursday, Jordan himself is not a kid who enjoys creating drama and was not in control of the actions that led to the letter of intent being held until Thursday night. Jordan has taken some unnecessary heat from fans because of how the process played out, but all of that has been unfair to him, and I feel comfortable saying if he could have had the NLI in on Wednesday, then it would have been.

I've spent a lot of time around the Hammond community in the last six months or so and I've heard nothing but positive things about Jordan, who has been a model student-athlete in his time there and has done everything asked of him, both on and off the field. Forget the obvious natural physical talents, he's a great kid, who works hard, and was right in the middle of a situation in which he had very little control, that happened to play out on a national scale. Let's have some empathy for him.



The recruitment

Will Muschamp and staff got the job done. I don't know if I've seen a head coach or a staff as a whole at South Carolina, put more time, effort and energy into a prospect than Muschamp and his staff did with Burch and his family. Muschamp was the lead recruiter here and he put in more time than any of the other head coaches who were involved here, but Carolina's assistants and support staff also deserve a ton of credit. Mike Peterson, Burch's position coach at Carolina, probably hasn't been talked about enough as he was instrumental in helping Burch and his mom feel comfortable and put in countless hours to help the Gamecocks win the most important recruiting battle of the Muschamp era.

Sure, South Carolina was positioned with some obvious advantages in that Burch goes to school right down the road from the university and that Jackson Muschamp plays football with Burch, but you also have to consider that the other four schools in Burch's top five - LSU, Clemson, UGA and Alabama - have all been in the College Football Playoff and played for the national title within the last three seasons with three of the four having won it during that span.

With South Carolina coming off a 4-8 season, the rumors about Muschamp's future, the coaching changes, and some unfortunate comments from both the university president and certain BOT members, there was a ton that Carolina had working against it too in their pursuit to land Burch. While there was a stretch through the season that most sort of counted the Gamecocks out, the staff continued to plug away, almost working under the radar regarding the perception of where Burch was leaning.

Interestingly, Clemson had a lot of buzz very early in his recruitment and some on the Clemson side still felt like they were in it until the original commitment, but from the summer on, I never got the impression that the Tigers were in any better than third place. Some will certainly debate me on that and that's fine - it's more of an opinion based on the totality of everything I've heard.. Georgia also had some buzz around the summer time - and despite that random, ultimately meaningless, UGA official that had the fan base up in arms - I actually don't believe UGA was a serious threat in the end, though they probably were early on.

Interestingly, it was LSU that I seemed to hear come up the most in connection with Burch throughout the season and it was LSU that obviously was the Gamecocks' biggest competition in the end. Burch loves Ed Orgeron and LSU in general, and had genuine interest in the program, but in the end I think the distance from home was too much for the Tigers to overcome, though it wasn't for the lack of trying.

Prior to Burch's original commitment, many were speculating about his destination and looking for concrete information. Obviously the quiet nature of the recruitment in the first place made that difficult to find, but the other reason for that is that Burch didn't make his final decision until the hours leading up to that announcement and it was extremely close between the two schools, with him going back and forth in the days leading up to it.

Ultimately, the chance to stay close to family, to play with his friends, to play for Muschamp, and to play for his home state, won out over the other factors. While some have posted rumors and speculation online about a disconnect between Burch and his mom and have tried to claim that Burch wanted to go elsewhere, I firmly believe, based on everything we've gathered from the initial commitment until last night, that Burch was completely comfortable with his decision and that he wants to play with his friends in his home state.



Jordan Burch, the player

It is my hope that the nature of this recruitment doesn't put any more pressure on Burch than there already would have been, but regardless of if it does or doesn't, there's no doubt that the expectations for Burch from some will be nearly impossible for him to reach.

Let's get this out of the way first. Jordan Burch is not Jadeveon Clowney. There may not be another Jadeveon Clowney in this state at defensive end in our lifetimes and to compare the two to each other simply isn't fair to either.

Going from SCISA to the SEC is going to be a big jump and it will take a massive adjustment as Burch goes from being the biggest, baddest and fastest dude on almost every football field he's ever stepped foot on, to locking up with athletes like Dylan Wonnum every day in practice and dudes like Georgia's Andrew Thomas every week in SEC play. It's not going to be easy and there will be a steep learning curve, which makes it difficult to predict when exactly he'll be ready to make a big impact at this level.

Now that we've established what Jordan Burch isn't, let's hit on what he is. Jordan Burch is a 6-foot-5, 275-pounder with elite athleticism and speed for someone his size. He's every bit of the five-star prospect he's been billed to be and I believe is actually now underrated by the recruiting industry since his move outside of the Top 10. The word "upside" is thrown around in recruiting as much as "RPO" is on a college football broadcast these days, but Burch's upside is incredible.

I've been doing this for a long time now and you just don't see many kids that have his size and speed combination. Funny thing is, a college coach told me two years ago that Burch could be an NFL tight end if that was the path he went down. But, obviously, the defensive line is where his future is. With Burch, college coaches see a player with the ability to be an every-down defensive end in that he's big enough and strong enough to excel against the run and is quick enough to be a pass-rusher too. There are a lot of big-bodied dudes who can do one or the other, but not many with his natural ability to do both.

It's for that reason that I believe he's an edge player all the way, despite some projecting him as a defensive tackle. It's easy to look at the 275 pounds by his name and assume he'll add 25 pounds in college, but when I look at his frame, I believe he'll first drop some weight in a college strength and conditioning program and then add it back as muscle, continuing to play somewhere in the 275 range. Granted, it's always a bit of a projection and it can be unpredictable how someone will respond to a new strength and nutrition plan, but he's an edge player all the way to me.

Whether he's termed as a "BUCK" or a "defensive end" in USC's scheme, we will see, but I think a lot of that will be determined by what combination ultimately gets Carolina's best players on the field. Burch may be bigger than the players that Carolina has put on the field at BUCK in Muschamp's time here, but it's a versatile position with some question marks on the two-deep right now and it wouldn't be hard to mold it to fit Burch's skillset if he's ready to make an impact and it meant getting him on the field at the same time as Aaron Sterling or J.J. Enagbare, who are proven at the defensive end spot opposite the BUCK.

From an intangibles standpoint, Burch has always been described as a hard worker, a good teammate, and a smart kid. I have watched Burch play basketball several times now (he's very skilled on the court and moves effortlessly) and while he may be a quiet kid, you can see the "it" factor come out when he decides he wants to take over a game. That was on full display against Heathwood last week when Burch got to play in front of his future USC coaches and teammates.

Burch's addition to the Gamecocks' roster, gives South Carolina a defensive line that features two five-stars and five four-stars. That not only speaks to the future of the position as Carolina has now signed back-to-back in-state five-star defensive linemen (each the top prospect in SC for his class), but also means Burch should be able to develop at his own pace. Once it all clicks in, Burch has all of the tools to potentially make a huge impact on the Gamecocks' defense.