Conway’s Edwards picks USC, again
Will Muschamp was one of the first three coaches to offer Bryan Edwards a chance at major-college football.
Two schools and three years later, Muschamp’s second batch of wooing held a bit more weight.
Edwards verbally committed to the Gamecocks and their new head coach on Tuesday, effectively ending a long recruiting process that started when he was just 13 years old. But even the last nine months - a span that included Edwards originally committing to USC, backing away following Steve Spurrier’s abrupt resignation and taking a good, hard look at Clemson - have felt like a lifetime.
“It has been a long road,” Conway coach Chuck Jordan said. “You’re talking about a kid who was offered in the ninth grade. It just has seemed like a forever process.
“[Re-committing] verifies that he made the right decision for him on the front end. He backed away because he didn’t know what the future held at South Carolina and the coaching staff. And I respect that. He ultimately returned. You’ve got to say he made the right decision in the first place.”
Edwards, whose final day at Conway is Friday and completing his coursework this week, could not be immediately reached for comment. However, Jordan said Edwards will stick with his original plan, which is to enroll at USC in January. There, he will continue rehabilitation on torn cartilage in his right knee that ended his senior season after nine games.
Before then, he caught 53 passes for 969 yards and nine touchdowns, figures that helped him earn a spot as one of the five finalists for South Carolina’s Mr. Football. Although he had to withdraw because of the injury, he was also selected for the U.S. Army All-American Bowl and the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas, the latter of which is being played this Saturday in Spartanburg.
The injury cost him the all-star games, but it did little to sway college coaches of his long-term potential. The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Edwards finished his Conway career with 188 receptions for 2,562 yards and 32 touchdowns, the first of which came in his very first game of his freshman season.
Muschamp saw that ability early on, offering Edwards a scholarship to Florida toward the end of the 2012 season. Muschamp was fired and spent a year as the defensive coordinator at Auburn before returning to the SEC East. The same day he was announced as the next coach at USC, he traveled to Conway for a meeting with Edwards, who also took his official visit to Columbia this past week.
Despite such tugging, Edwards wavered back and forth with between South Carolina and Clemson till the early part of this week.
“He was agonizing [Monday],” Conway coach Chuck Jordan said. “I could tell. You could see the stress on his face. When he told me, he was extremely relieved. That’s a good emotion. It tells you two things. One, he’s made a decision. But two, he feels good about this decision.”
Edwards is next in a line of Conway players to join the USC roster. Notably, he also fits the same billing as former running back Bobby Wallace. Edwards became Muschamp’s first verbal commitment, much like Wallace was for Spurrier back in the first week of December in 2004.
“It’s pure coincidence,” Jordan said. “You look at Bobby and you look at Bryan and what’s been between them. There haven’t been that many Division-I players. I think it’s always good for your school and your community to have your kids go play next-level ball. When its one of your in-state universities, it’s an even better thing.”
For Edwards, who still had offers from as far away as California and regionally from the likes of Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia Tech, even electing garnet and black over Clemson orange was no easy choice. His grandfather played at Clemson, and the Tigers’ No. 1 ranking and hopes for the college football national championship had considerable influence.
This story was originally published December 15, 2015 at 11:28 AM with the headline "Conway’s Edwards picks USC, again."