Nasirildeen had Carolina in his mind
CONCORD, N.C. - Concord (N.C.) four-star safety Hamsah Nasirildeen took a measured approach to the recruiting process before eventually deciding on South Carolina, which he committed to Tuesday afternoon.
The 6-foot-3, 210-pounder visited all of his favorites, which included college football blue bloods like Alabama, Florida and Florida State, and then made a list of around 20 qualities that were most important to him in a school. South Carolina checked the most boxes.
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"I chose South Carolina because of my relationship with coach (Will) Muschamp, coach (Travaris Robinson), coach (Bobby) Bentley, and really everybody on the staff, from guys that really aren't even coaches," Nasirildeen said Thursday night. "And really just feeling comfortable away from home, the distance from home itself. And the development that Coach Muschamp and his staff does, especially at the defensive back position, is really a high standard. That's what I'm looking for as well as getting to compete against top teams every week and you're going to get that in the SEC each week."
Nasirildeen's father, Hamsah Nasirildeen Sr., added that it was the South Carolina staff's consistent effort from beginning to end that led to his son's comfort level with the school.
When South Carolina offered in February, Nasirideen just had four non-Power Five offers. When his recruitment ended, major schools all around the country wanted the Rivals250 prospect
"It meant a lot, because when some of these schools offer you, you don't know if it's because another school offered you or this, that and the third," Nasirildeen said. "When they offered me, they looked me dead in my face and said, 'I don't know how many offers you've got, but we think you're a heck of a talent and we want you to come play here.'"
Bentley, who is Concord's area recruiter, and Robinson, the Gamecocks defensive coordinator, tag-teamed Nasirildeen's recruitment while Muschamp, who also coaches the safeties, added his personal touch, staying in consistent communication with the four-star prospect.
Nasirildeen's one-on-one work with Muschamp during his trip to Columbia for camp also left an impression.
"He does a great job coaching defensive backs and when I worked out with him personally, he just showed me a lot of small things that I was doing wrong that within 15 or 20 minutes of working out, I was able to kill," Nasirildeen said. "I was able to use my body in better ways, take better angles to position myself to move faster and explode better. He was just showing me how to use my body."
Due to his calculated approach to the process, Nasirildeen feels he's seen all of the recruiting process he needs and doesn't plan to take other visits.
Even past the checked boxes and logical reasons for him to pick the Gamecocks, Nasirildeen says there was also a feeling about the school that he just couldn't shake.
"When you leave a school fresh, every school that you go to, you feel like you're going to be at that school, just because the love that you got from the coaches, but then three, four or five days afterwards, I would always go back to South Carolina in my head and that just really let me know that that's what I felt the strongest about," Nasirildeen explained. "At South Carolina when I leave, it will stay there until I go to another school. When I go to other schools, it would be five, six days and then my mind would be back on South Carolina."
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