No position was recruited more heavily among South Carolina football’s Class of 2025 than at receiver.
The Gamecocks signed six high school receivers this recruiting cycle — Malik Clark, Lex Cyrus, Jordon Gidron, Brian Rowe, Jayden Sellers and Donovan Murph. Four of the receivers are in-state additions, and all but Murph have been on campus since January and have been going through spring practice.
Murph, who will graduate a year early, will arrive in June after finishing up classes at nearby Irmo High School, but he’s been present on the sidelines during spring practice.
The Gamecocks held their first scrimmage on Saturday and have one more this weekend before the spring game on April 18.
“They have come along,” USC coach Shane Beamer said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. “… Right now the biggest thing is learning all the details — stances, alignment, your split, meaning how far you are from the tackle. That is what we have talked to them a lot about. A lot of what we are putting in offensively is in. Early on, it was them learning what they needed to do on that play.
So now, focus on what the other 10 people are doing around (you). … I feel like in the first nine practices, they’ve really come along.”
Beamer singled out Clark, who played at Rock Hill High, and Rowe for their performances in Saturday’s scrimmage, but added that all have had their moments this spring. In an age of transfer portal where a team can easily add a quick fix, it’s somewhat rare that so many high school players at one position are brought in to develop.
But Beamer and the staff have high expectations for the group — this year and moving forward.
“In the end, it was just stick with what we believed we had coming back. It’s my job as a wide receiver coach to develop the guys coming back,” USC receivers coach Mike Furrey said last month. “We had enough trust in the guys coming in. I told Coach Beamer, it’s my job to make sure these young freshmen are where we want them to be. That’s why we recruited them.
“So we ended up making that decision that we weren’t going to bring anybody in to enter that room” from the portal.
Clark, Rowe, Murph and Cyrus all were four-star prospects according to 247Sports, and Gidron probably would have been ranked higher if not for injuries during his junior season at Ridge View High. He, like Murph, reclassified and graduated high school a year early, and won the 100 and 200 races in the track state championships last spring.
Sellers is the younger brother of starting QB LaNorris Sellers, and the two have chemistry together on and off the field.
“We started talking about stuff here once they won state last year,” LaNorris said of his brother, who helped South Florence to the Class 4A state championship in December. “Just the little stuff. I gave him the playbook that they gave me. Just learn it if you want to play early. Talking to him, keeping his conference high. Told him it wasn’t going to be easy, but he can do it.”
LaNorris Sellers said it’s been a little different working with so many young receivers, but he noted the freshmen’s work ethic. If two or three can emerge during the fall, it will give him more weapons on top of what is coming back from last season, including Nyck Harbor, Jared Brown, Mazeo Bennett and Vandrevius Jacobs.
The word ‘talented’ is going to be mentioned a lot with that group. They’re super talented,” said Furrey, a former NFL receiver. “Obviously, that’s why we wanted them here and why we worked our tails off to recruit them and get them all here. They so far have checked that box. There’s a lot of work left.”
