Every time a staff has a new position coach, it is the first question.

What about recruiting? High school prospects are often loyal to the previous coach at their position, with relationships in recruiting often spanning years, It can lead to re-evaluations, and is often one of the key sources of flips late in a process.

In this case, South Carolina football’s new wide receivers coach Mike Furrey joined the staff in late February. And with less than a year to put a class together, he helped engineer arguably South Carolina’s strongest position group in its 2025 recruiting class. The Gamecocks signed five wide receivers from three different states on Wednesday’s early signing day, and still might not be done adding to the room.

“I think he came in on a mission,” Shane Beamer said about Furrey. “Okay, who’s this dude from Limestone College, how can he go recruit in the SEC? And he took that personally. I think he said it in here when he got hired, there’s no reason why the best receivers in the country shouldn’t come play for the University of South Carolina. And he went on a mission to go do that.”

The highest-rated member of the class was also maybe the biggest surprise of all, local product Jordon Gidron. The receiver from Columbia was originally a priority class of 2026 target for South Carolina, but re-classified to the class of 2025 in October. Shortly after, the No. 2 overall player in the state as ranked by Rivals committed to the Gamecocks.

“We’re recruiting like crazy for the class of ‘26,” Beamer said. “And then all of a sudden it comes to me that he’s now going to be in the class of ‘25 and could be on our team, like, in two months. And then to be able to get that, that’s a huge addition for us.”

The other two in-state wide receivers both come with unique stories as well. Malik Clark out of Rock Hill originally committed to Florida State in July, but the staff stayed on him and eventually flipped him from Tallahassee to join the program.

And Jayden Sellers from Florence, well, the last name says it all. A Sellers-to-Sellers touchdown connection could be coming to a stadium near you next fall.

"Jayden is a great player,” Beamer said. “He's got a great family and we're really excited about his ability as a wide receiver. That's really cool that both brothers are going to be on the team, and that one brother is going to be throwing to the other brother.”

The two out of state commitments were Brian Rowe Jr. from Concord, N.C. and Lex Cyrus from Harrisburg, PA. The latter of which was a particularly impressive victory for Beamer and Furrey on the recruiting trail, beating out local favorite Penn State for the blue-chip Pennsylvania prospect after the Nittany Lions recruited him heavily.

According to the Rivals database Cyrus took eight visits to Penn State and only two to South Carolina, but the Gamecocks won the recruiting battle and planted a flag in the northeast.

“He did a grand slam job,” Beamer said on Furrey’s first recruiting class. “Kudos to him evaluating those guys and then going after them and being able to develop relationships with them.”

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