Last week the Columbia Touchdown Club had Chuck Reedy, the Goose Creek Head Coach, come speak. Many remember Reedy’s days as coordinator at Clemson in the 1980s and as offensive coordinator for South Carolina in 1998.
Reedy noted how both South Carolina and Clemson have produced better teams the last few years, and he had a theory to explain why that was happening. In short, the theory is that Clemson and South Carolina have kept the instate talent at home. He explained that in the 1980s, when Clemson and South Carolina were both having success, very few recruits that CU and USC wanted made it out of state. In contrast from 1990-2010 somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 NFL 1st round picks came from South Carolina but didn’t attend a state school.
Reedy may be onto something, and it may explain South Carolina’s three game winning streak over Georgia. On the Bulldogs roster there are exactly two scholarship players from South Carolina. Kwame Geathers of Carvers Bay and Dexter Morant of Manning are the only two. The Carolina talent has stayed home.
Conversely, South Carolina signed four Georgia players last season who also held offers from the Bulldogs. RB Mike Davis of Stone Mountain headlined the class. Joining him were S Chaz Elder of College Park, G Joe Harris of Lithonia and DE Jhaustin Thomas of Decatur.
Players like Stephon Gilmore, Alshon Jeffrey, Marcus Lattimore and Jadeveon Clowney are staying home, and that is clearly paying dividends. Plus, it looks like South Carolina is raising the bar even higher by not only keep theirs but also raiding Georgia for some of their prized recruits. The result? You saw it on Saturday night, 35-7.
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