South Carolina fended off nearly the entire country to land arguably its top overall target in the 2027 class when Josh Dobson announced his commitment to the Gamecocks on Wednesday night.
On the same day that South Carolina ushered in the Nike era, the five-star cornerback announced his pledge to the program over finalists Michigan, Texas A&M, and Auburn.
The commitment marks a return to the Palmetto State for Dobson, who began his high school career at Fort Mill’s Catawba Ridge, but will play his senior year just across the North Carolina border at Hough High, where he announced his decision Wednesday via Rivals.
The addition of Dobson is a massive recruiting win for Shane Beamer, Torrian Gray, and Darren Uscher, who have prioritized the 6-foot-1, 185-pounder since before his freshman year.
Dobson was the top overall prospect in the state of South Carolina and is now tops in North Carolina, according to Rivals, which ranks him as the No. 6 overall prospect and No. 2 cornerback in the class.
He is the highest-ranked commitment of the Beamer era according to Rivals rankings.
He took official visits to all four finalists after whittling down his recruitment from a massive list of Blue Bloods, with the Gamecocks getting the final visit a couple of weekends ago.
That visit proved to be pivotal to his decision.
“His message was really like, come where you know you’re going to get taken care of and get developed the right way,” Dobson said at the time, of his conversation with Beamer. “And then the biggest thing with me was his sustainability, but they made it clear to me that, that’s obviously going to take care of itself. They think they’re going to have a great season this year. That really stood out to me.”
Another element that has always been a factor with Dobson is the chance to be developed by the best. And there aren’t many defensive backs coaches in the country with a better track record than Gray, who has sent DBs to the league during his time at South Carolina, Florida, and Virginia Tech.
“Man, the relationship with T Gray is amazing,” he said a couple of weeks ago. “Honestly, the high school I’m at now, the stuff that we do there, T Gray does a lot of it there as far as technique, so that’s all good, too.”
Despite not making his final group, schools like LSU, Clemson, Notre Dame, and Tennessee were all considered major factors with Dobson at various points in the recruiting process. Not to mention offers from schools like Georgia, Miami, Florida, Florida State, Ohio State, and Oregon, among many others.
But it’s the Gamecocks who won out in the battle for Dobson, giving Carolina its highest-rated pledge of the Beamer era.
Like this story0Share article