South Carolina Football: Grading the Gamecocks 2019 recruiting class

Will Muschamp and the South Carolina Gamecocks have pieced together a respectable 2019 recruiting class. Here’s what it looks like.

For their 2019 recruiting class, the South Carolina Gamecocks have put together a pretty good group with the majority of the players already having signed or enrolled early. There are 22 players involved in this class with nine players already enrolled and 10 that have signed their letters of intent.

So that leaves South Carolina with just three recruits currently committed to join the Gamecocks but still not yet signed. All of that adds up and equals out to Muschamp’s team having the No. 21 ranked recruiting class in the country.

After a 7-6 season that could have been notably better, it’s fair to say that Muschamp and the Gamecocks have hit the recruiting trail pretty hard.

This defensive line is about to get really, really good.

Will Muschamp is a defensive minded guy. That’s not a secret by any stretch of the imagination. So, it shouldn’t be a shocker that Muschamp’s team went out and recruited some really talented defensive tackles and defensive ends to come in and potentially make an impact sooner rather than later.

Five-star defensive tackle Zacch Pickens is one of the best recruits in the entire country. South Carolina was able to get the No. 8 overall recruit in Pickens to select the Gamecocks over the likes of Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, and (arguably most importantly to South Carolina) Clemson.

But Pickens isn’t the only talented addition to this defensive line. The Gamecocks have three other defensive linemen signed to join their team and one more committed in four-star Jahkeem Green. South Carolina is going to be really, really good on the defensive line if these players pan out.

Quarterback Ryan Hilinski in Columbia could be interesting to watch.

South Carolina probably got its quarterback of the future in this class all the way from Orange, California. Ryan Hilinski, a four-star pro-style quarterback, chose to enroll with South Carolina over a multitude of other teams including both Arizona and Arizona State, Boise State and Boston College.

But that’s just a handful of teams that were interested in Hilinski.

He also held offers from teams such as Georgia, LSU, Oregon, UCLA, USC, Washington State, Stanford, and so many others.

Here’s what South Carolina’s 2019 recruiting class looks like courtesy of 247 Sports:

South Carolina’s class isn’t as good as Georgia’s, Clemson’s, Florida’s, or even Tennessee’s, but the Gamecocks still have a pretty good class. Coming in at No. 21 is respectable. It’s actually really, really good given that South Carolina couldn’t consistently win games during this past season.

So, all things considered, this is a good group that should help elevate this program some moving forward.

That said, Will Muschamp and his coaching staff will need higher ranked classes if the Gamecocks are going to contend for the SEC East. And if the Gamecocks ever want to beat Clemson again, they’ll need some more talent on their roster. South Carolina did well considering the season that it just had, but Muschamp and the Gamecocks need to do better.