Brandon McIlwain at Elite 11: Gamecocks' QB commit looking to make an impact

One of the South Carolina Gamecocks' top commits from the high school class of 2016 hasn't even signed his letter of intent, but he's already receiving a lot of hype as he prepares for the top quarterback camp in the nation.

Brandon McIlwain is at the Elite 11 event at the Nike campus in Oregon, where he'll go toe-to-toe with the best high school QB talents in the U.S. And, if he has a strong showing, he'll confirm the suspicion that he was worth the offer that the Gamecocks threw his way. (By the way, only two other Gamecocks quarterbacks have participated in Elite 11 during their high school careers: Blake Mitchell and Stephen Garcia.)

But Gamecocks fans shouldn't just be anticipating good things on the field in hopes that it will translate to success once the Pennsylvania product is in the pocket at Williams-Brice Stadium in a year or two.

Sometimes, the best recruiters aren't the coaches, but the players themselves. Several current seniors-to-be have already heard from McIlwain (and vice versa) in regards to playing for USC. Don't think that if McIlwain impresses this week that a few kids around the land—say, for example, at The Opening, Nike's mega-event featuring the top high school players at every position which starts with the Elite 11 and runs until Friday—won't take notice and put the University of South Carolina on their list.

SBNation's recruiting experts, Bud Elliott and Pete Volk, are up at The Opening (and Elite 11) right now and will be keeping track of the action all week long. Click here for updates (they'll be answering your questions in the comment section over at this link, as well), and follow them on Twitter (@SBNRecruiting) for the scoop.