South Carolina line of defense coach Travian Robertson suffered vital personnel loss at his positions after final season. To offset that, he’s gone out and recruited 5 newcomers for his defensive deal with spots, two from excessive colleges and three from the Switch Portal. His latest seize is Georgia Southern switch Troy Pikes (6-4 285).
Pikes is a local of Atlanta who spent two seasons at Georgia Southern redshirting his freshman season then enjoying in 13 video games final season and totaling 13 tackles. Pikes additionally took official visits to Georgia, Georgia Tech and Ohio State earlier than visiting USC final weekend. Robertson and firm simply gained him over with how they run their enterprise.
“They’re very straight ahead guys, guys who I really feel like will get my sport to the subsequent degree the place I’m attempting to go,” Pikes mentioned. “The scheme and the match that the blokes have had earlier success in is sort of just like what I do on the sphere. These guys like TJ Sanders who simply received drafted, that’s sort of how my sport is just a little bit, so I really feel like it will likely be an ideal match for me.”
Pike made main strides on the sphere from his first season to his second in Statesboro. That sort of soccer progress led Robertson to go shortly after him as soon as he was within the Portal.
“They see me coming in and contributing immediately,” Pikes mentioned. “That’s all I’ve been listening to, simply coming in and having the ability to assist this staff win extra ballgames. That’s what I’m right here to do. My potential to be as large as I’m and be capable to transfer, and likewise to run sideline to sideline, I really feel like that was actually a key suppose as to why Coach Robertson was excited about me. My potential to play within the backfield rather a lot. I’m sort of at all times within the backfield, and that’s sort of what they do.”
The Gamecocks received the ultimate official go to on this recruiting contest, and that turned out to be useful for them as they have been in a position to present Pikes just a bit one thing further that satisfied him to make Columbia his dwelling for the subsequent 12 months or two as a minimum.
“All these applications are nice applications and so they handled me superb,” Pikes mentioned. “It simply got here all the way down to the place I felt like was dwelling. I’m not attempting to be a man who’s going to hop again into the Portal. Wherever I wished to go goes to be the place I used to be going to be attempting to get to the NFL. That’s one thing I’ve at all times dreamed of, having the ability to play on the highest degree (SEC) with among the greatest guys. Simply seeing that occur for me just a little early in my profession, it simply reveals how a lot progress I can get and the way significantly better I can get to get to the NFL.”
Pikes is again at Georgia Southern ending up his courses. He mentioned he’ll arrive at USC in late Could or early June to start his work with the Gamecocks.
