When he took to Zoom Wednesday, Shane Beamer wanted to be discussing 20 signees and a top 10 recruiting class. Instead, it was a smaller, eight-man signing class and that was in part by design.

While it’s not a behemoth class right now, what the smaller class gives the Gamecocks right now is some flexibility to mold and shape the 2021 recruiting class leading into the February signing period.

“I don’t know what other scholarship situations are across the country with other colleges but I can’t imagine anyone out there has a better situation out there as far as initial scholarships available to use going into February. We can really improve our team,” Beamer said. “We’re already hard at work on it.”

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The Gamecocks only inked eight of their nine commitments in the class and have double-digit scholarships available to use heading into the February signing period.

Beamer said the Gamecocks have a “detailed, organized” plan they’re planning on executing that will involve a “strong mix” of high school, junior college and transfer portal commitments.

“Every time I pull up this cellphone I have a text saying, ‘So and so is in the portal. Here’s his number, his coach’s name and his mom’s name.’ We’re not chasing after every guy but a lot of these guys it’s, ‘I know him,’” Beamer said.

“If we don’t use all those in January it’s ok. Things are going to happen after spring practice. Guys every year decide to leave programs after the spring. You always want to have initial scholarships availability if you need them. We’re going to try and improve the roster scholarship by scholarship going forward.”

The Gamecocks are planning on hitting the portal hard trying to find potential instant impact players from other schools who have college experience.

What makes exploring the portal harder this time around, especially for Beamer, is the lack of visits but that means more legwork on the coaching staff’s end.

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“A lot of these guys I recruited in school. A lot of the guys in the portal or could be coming into the portal I already had relationships with,” Beamer said. “We’re going to make sure any person we bring into the program we do a thorough evaluation of things before we bring them in,” “They have to fit in our culture and in our locker room and a good fit from that standpoint.”

Beamer mentioned too potentially leaving a few spots in the class open after the February signing period to take more transfers that come about after spring practice.

While the jury is still out on the Gamecocks’ recruiting class, there is still a lot left to be settled and Beamer is going to have a busy few months of recruiting.

“If you’re a young man out there listening to this press conference or read about this press conference, you have a tremendous opportunity at the University of South Carolina to make an immediate impact on and off the field,” Beamer said. “We’re not going out there just collecting talent and signing guys to sign guys. They have to be a fit for what we want this program to be going forward.”