The South Carolina Gamecocks picked up a verbal commitment from the state's top overall prospect when receiver Shaq Roland (Lexington, S.C.) decided it was time to tell the world he plans to wear the 'garnet and black' at the next level.

Roland picked South Carolina over Alabama and Georgia. The 6-foot-2, 190-pounder posted on his Facebook page shortly after speaking with USC recruiting coordinator and receivers coach Steve Spurrier Jr. that "it's finally done. I've committed to the South Carolina Gamecocks."

Shaq is the state of South Carolina's No. 1 prospect and the No. 63 overall recruit according to Rivals.com.  Roland is a four-star recruit with a numerical grade of 96 according to 247Sports and is the highest-rated prospect to date to commit to South Carolina in the 2012 class. He is the nation's No. 5 athlete prospect according to 247Sports.

Roland had 58 receptions last season for 1033 yards and 10 touchdowns. He also rushed for 684 yards and 10 touchdowns, and had 3 interceptions on defense.

This is the third consecutive year that the Gamecocks have landed the state's top player, following Marcus Lattimore and Jadeveon Clowney.

Roland is commitment No. 13 for USC.  This commitment gives USC their third at wide reciever in a week and second in two days. Roland joins Kwinton Smith from Dillon, SC and Jody Fuller from Monroe, NC as the WR commitments for the 2012 class.

Here is a video of the newest Gamecock in action:

As you can see Shaq Roland was a do-it-all player for the Lexington Wildcats, rushing, receiving, taking back kicks and even passing some.  This will come in handy for the Gamecocks in the future as a playmaker.  Question is - will he also play basketball at USC?

The South Carolina football team picked up a big verbal commitment on Friday night when Monroe (NC) Sun Valley wide receiver Jody Fuller announced he wants to be a Gamecock.

The 6-foot, 205-pounder picked USC over offers from Arkansas, Clemson, Maryland, Miami, Michigan, North Carolina, NC State, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, and several others.

Fuller, the nation’s No. 16 receiver prospect, is rated as a four star prospect by Rivals and according to 247Sports; he is a four-star prospect with an overall grade of 94.

Fuller has 4.4 speed with good hands and can get the separation needed at the collegiate level.  Last season Fuller caught 77 passes for 845 yards and 16 touchdowns.

He is the second receiver to commit to the Gamecocks, joining Kwinton Smith.

Fuller was at ESPN/Nike's "The Opening" a combine for high school football players. At this event, he performed really strong as seen in these numbers:
4.62 40 yd
4.25 Agility Shuffle
36.6 Vertical Leap
40 ft Powerball Toss

The above scores gave him a final SPARQ rating of 115.4 putting him the top 25 and 5th among WRs.

Here is a video of the newest Gamecock in action:

Fuller is the twelfth overall verbal commitment in the 2012 class for South Carolina.

Kwinton Smith has verbally committed to play football at the University of South Carolina.

Smith (Dillon, SC) made an unofficial visit to Columbia, S.C. on Wednesday, and decided to end his recruitment on the spot, informing wide receivers coach Steve Spurrier, Jr. of his desire to give his pledge to be a future Gamecock.

Smith has tremendous upside due to his mix of speed and size, matched with good hands and good route running.  The 6-foot-4, 206-pounder chose the Gamecocks over offers from Florida, Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Notre Dame, NC State, Wake Forest, Tennessee, and several others.

Smith finished his junior season with 42 catches, 809 yards, and 15 touchdowns.  Smith is a three-star prospect according to 247sports and has an 88 rating.  He projects as a four-star prospect in Rivals.com's rankings.

Fans of the National Championship South Carolina baseball program could also see Smith on the diamond as he is a standout baseball player for Dillon High and would like to play both sports at USC. Smith has talked with the USC baseball coaching staff about the possibility of playing baseball at South Carolina. He plays centerfield and pitches for Dillon. Last season, he batted .475 with 6 home runs.

Smith is commitment No. 11 for the Gamecocks and the first as a receiver.

The incoming South Carolina Gamecocks basketball recruiting class is ranked tenth by Rivals. 

With the Gamecocks basketball team is still stuck in a rebuilding stage post-Odom and given recent loses of Murphy Holloway, Stephen Spinella and Ramon Galloway the building of the program to where it needs to be may take a little longer. 

Good news for SEC basketball fans is the enitre incoming freshman class is ranked best in the nation when compared to the other conferences.  So competition is going to be tough for USC as they climb the hill to get to the top.

Seems the process of getting USC at the top of the SEC may take more time than Gamecock fans are hoping for given Coach Horn's recruiting class recently received a ranking of tenth compared to other SEC conference teams.  Hard to pick up ground don't you think?

Here is the rundown of the classes as seen by Rivals.com recruiting analysts Jerry Meyer and Eric Bossi, notice the national rankings -

Ranking the classes (national rank)
1. Kentucky (1)
2. Alabama (5)
3. Arkansas (7)
4. Mississippi State (12)
5. Florida (24)
6. Georgia (25)
7. Vanderbilt (29)
8. Tennessee
9. LSU
10. South Carolina
11. Auburn
12. Ole Miss

South Carolina's class does have talent coming in and the talent is sorely needed given the recent results of South Carolina.  Damien Leonard, Anthony Gill and Brenton Williams should be contributing from the moment they join the team.  Don't mistake this post for negativity, we join the Gamecock faithful as we too desire the basketball team to begin to perform at a high level much like the football and baseball team.

Mason Zandi (6-9 275) of Chapin, South Carolina made an unofficial visit to the University of South Carolina this past Thursday with his father and decided we wanted to be a future Gamecock football as he gave his verbal pledge on Friday.  Zandi will be a offensive lineman for USC and is the 10th commitment for the Gamecocks' 2012 recruiting class.

Zandi, a two-star OL prospect by 247sports, picked the Gamecocks over an offer from Clemson.  He also had interest from East Carolina.

Love this pick-up for USC as he is a big kid that can get bigger.  He is a local kid that wants to be a Gamecock and those are the kids that will give 110% as they have dreamed of wearing the 'garnet & black'.  Zandi will likely end up playing one of the tackle spots in the future after Coach Elliott develops him and he pounds on some pounds.

Welcome Mason to the Gamecock family.  He is the second pick-up for USC this week after Kelvin Rainey also decided to be a USC guy.

The South Carolina football team picked up an elite tight end for the 2012 recruiting cycle as Kelvin Rainey (6-3 210) of Yulee, FL committed to being a future member of the Gamecocks football team. Rainey picked USC over Georgia and Miami after narrowing his decision down to a final three.

Last season, Rainey had 30 catches for 450 yards and 7 touchdowns. 247sports rates him as a four star recruit as did Rivals.  He is rated as the 11th best tight end in the nation.  South Carolina receivers coach Steve Spurrier Jr. was the recruiter of record for Rainey.

As we wrote about Rainey in April, he is a big body at TE, much like Jared Cook, that USC needs due to the mis-match it creates that can help spur the offense.  

Rainey is the 9th commitment for the Gamecocks' 2012 class.  Here is a video of him in action -

Darius English of Powder Springs, Georgia gave his verbal pledge to be a member of the 2012 University of South Carolina football class. English (6-6 215) out of McEachern High is commitment No. 8 for Coach Spurrier.

English, a three star prospect, has been recruited to play defensive end for USC.  He picked the Gamecocks over Arkansas. Some of his other offers were Kentucky, Illinois, East Carolina, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Auburn and Wake Forest.

He chose USC due to it being close to his home, the facilities and the pedigree of producing talent along the defensive line.  He has loads of upside and is expected to put on 30 pounds before next fall. 

Last season, English had 87 tackles and 17 sacks.  Here is a video of him:

The South Carolina Gamecocks picked up their seventh verbal commitment for the 2012 class as Rico McWilliams has decided he wants to wear the garnet and black.

McWilliams will likely play corner in college as he was a defensive back and wide out for his high school in Hampton, Ga.  He has good speed and good hands.  He was a three star recruit says Rivals.com and in the top 250 as far as atheltes is concerned.  The 6'0", 175 pound youngster should keep the tradition alive of "DB U" at USC.  McWilliams had over 15 offers that included the likes of Arkansas, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, South Florida, Kentucky, Michigan State, Nebraska, NC State, Purdue, Vanderbilt, Pittsburgh, Wisconsin and Virginia.

McWilliams visited USC earlier this month and to him, it felt right.

Welcome to Gamecock nation.

Here is the young man in action:

Stone Mountain (GA) Stephenson defensive back Kyle Fleetwood pledged to be a Gamecock football player after his unofficial visit to the University of South Carolina over the weekend. Fleetwood is the sixth verbal commitment of the 2012 recruiting class for Coach Spurrier's squad.

His recruiter is Lorenzo Ward and he provided a tour of the campus and the football facilites for Fleetwood and his family.  Fleetwood had been considering Vanderbilt, LSU, Penn State and Louisville but chose the Gamecocks for his collegiate career.

Fleetwood (5'11" 200 lbs) played both sides of the ball in high school but is likely a future member of the USC secondary, likely at strong safety where he had 42 tackles with 3 interceptions last season.  He will be a nice addition as you can see in this video as he has good pursuit angles, tackles well and has good 4.5 type speed -

The South Carolina Gamecocks basketball team is a little more active of late, as noted Coach Darrin Horn extended a offer to guard Charles Mann and now three other names have emerged on the basketball recruiting radar.  The Gamecocks are after Kareem Canty, Chris Bolden and now Juwan Staten.

Here's a breakdown: