Three boards, one state

South Carolina opens its 2026 season this week. Recruit Intel built three verified boards for the state: the best player at every position, the recruits holding real Division 1 offers with no star rating anywhere, and the programs producing the most offers. Every number below comes from our canonical database and is stated with the sample it rests on. Player figures were verified against the current roster on 2026-08-20.

The best at every position

One player per position slot, classes 2027 through 2029. These ten hold 229 verified Division 1 offers between them. Offer counts are distinct college offers per player.

  • QB, Bear Woods, Westside (Anderson), class of 2029. 13 verified offers. Threw for 2,318 yards and 22 touchdowns against 6 interceptions and ran for 96 yards and 3 more over 12 games in 2025, one of the youngest players anywhere on this board.
  • RB, Brayden Boults, Crestwood (Sumter), class of 2029. 36 verified offers, the second most of any player here and the most held by any underclassman on the board.
  • WR, Jaiden Kelly-Murray, Oceanside Collegiate Academy (Mount Pleasant), class of 2027. Committed to Colorado, 41 verified offers, the most of any player on this board. A four-star.
  • TE, Riggs Savage, Powdersville (Greenville), class of 2028. 20 verified offers. A three-star.
  • OL, Nate Carson, Irmo (Columbia), class of 2027. Committed to South Carolina, 30 verified offers. A four-star.
  • DL, Jaiden Bryant, Irmo (Columbia), class of 2027. Committed to Miami, 25 verified offers. A five-star, the highest-rated player on the board.
  • LB, K.J. Burg, South Pointe (Rock Hill), class of 2027. 14 verified offers. Recorded 27 tackles for loss and 6 sacks over 13 games in 2025.
  • CB, Kaiden Watkins, South Pointe (Rock Hill), class of 2027. Committed to James Madison, 24 verified offers. A three-star.
  • S, John Campbell, St. Joseph's Catholic (Greenville), class of 2027. 25 verified offers.
  • ATH, Kareem Shaw, D.W. Daniel (Central), class of 2027. 1 verified offer.

Jaiden Bryant is the marquee name, a five-star defensive lineman committed to Miami, and Jaiden Kelly-Murray leads the board in offers with 41 as a Colorado commit. Irmo places two players here on its own, Carson at tackle and Bryant on the defensive line. The two class of 2029 names are the story to file away: Bear Woods already threw for 2,318 yards and 22 touchdowns as a young quarterback, and Brayden Boults holds 36 offers before his junior year.

The recruits the rankings have not caught

Classes 2028 and 2029, real Division 1 offers, and zero stars across 247Sports, On3, Rivals and ESPN as of 2026-08-20. These ten hold 60 verified offers between them, and we did not pad the board.

  1. Zion Dawkins, CB, Gaffney (Gaffney), 2028. 11 offers.
  2. Jamil Watson, LB, South Pointe (Rock Hill), 2028. 10 offers.
  3. Dez Davis, edge, North Augusta (North Augusta), 2029. 6 offers.
  4. Phillip Savage, LB, Powdersville (Greenville), 2028. 5 offers.
  5. Teru Davis Jr., WR, Summerville (Summerville), 2028. 5 offers.
  6. Joshua Davis, WR, A.C. Flora (Columbia), 2028. 5 offers.
  7. Kenneth Wilson, LB, Indian Land (Fort Mill), 2028. 5 offers.
  8. Demarion Arrington, WR, Irmo (Columbia), 2028. 5 offers.
  9. Nick Sargent, TE, Belton-Honea Path (Honea Path), 2028. 4 offers.
  10. Raymon Jones, LB, Ridge View (Columbia), 2028. 4 offers.

It is a ratings gap, not a discovery claim: the programs recruiting these players found them long before we listed them. When the services get to them, this dated page is the receipt.

The programs producing the offers

Recruit Intel ranked the state's top 10 high schools by offer production across the 2023 through 2026 classes, the sum of verified Division 1 offers held by their recent recruits. Across these 10 schools sit 52 recruits holding 469 offers between them.

  1. Gaffney (Gaffney): 97 offers across 10 recruits
  2. South Pointe (Rock Hill): 59 offers across 7 recruits
  3. Dorman (Roebuck): 50 offers across 6 recruits
  4. Dutch Fork (Irmo): 45 offers across 4 recruits
  5. Greenville (Greenville): 40 offers across 6 recruits
  6. Westside (Anderson): 40 offers across 4 recruits
  7. Northwestern (Rock Hill): 39 offers across 5 recruits
  8. Summerville (Summerville): 36 offers across 3 recruits
  9. Indian Land (Fort Mill): 32 offers across 4 recruits
  10. Camden (Camden): 31 offers across 3 recruits

Gaffney leads the state at 97 offers across 10 recruits, more than the next two schools carry between them. Rock Hill puts two programs on the board in South Pointe and Northwestern, and the list runs from the Upstate through the Midlands, a reminder that the state's Division 1 pipeline is not one metro.

How we counted

Every number here comes from the Recruit Intel canonical database. Offer counts are distinct college offers per player rather than raw offer rows. Production lines are season totals from game level box scores, and each one states the number of games it covers. At the offensive and defensive line slots, and at any slot whose 2027 through 2029 pool carried no recorded box-score production, the board ranks on verified offer volume alone rather than a production blend. A player counts as unrated only when every one of the five services, 247Sports, On3, Rivals, ESPN and the composite, lists no stars. Every named player was re-verified against the current roster on 2026-08-20 and pinned to a database record id, not matched on name alone.