Gamecocks football recruiting: Five-star Ala. LB Ben Davis offered by South Carolina

The South Carolina Gamecocks are aiming high for one of the nation's best football players. Gordo (Ala.) inside linebacker Ben Davis, the son of former Alabama great Wayne Davis and arguably the top linebacker in the 2016 class (13th best recruit overall nationwide according to Rivals.com), was offered by Carolina today. How in demand is he? Before the Gamecocks offered him, he had 29 offers.

Davis participated in The Opening with current Gamecocks QB commit Brandon McIlwain, and it's not out of the question to think that the Pennsylvania product has been recruiting him to join him at USC. Will it work? We'll see, but for now, it looks like he is a strong Alabama lean at this point. If (and it may be a longshot at this point in time) Carolina can somehow lure Davis to Columbia, it would be the most significant recruit to commit in some time and would certainly reestablish the program's standing on the recruiting trail among its SEC mates.

The Gamecocks have thirteen commitments thus far from the class of 2016, headlined by four-star trio P.J. Blue, Marlon Character and Bryan Edwards. With the team holding a trio of juniors at the LB position right now (true third-year players Skai Moore and Jonathan Walton and redshirt T.J. Holloman) and two LB's in Blue and Jacorey Morris in the fold right now, they're clearly attempting to add one more to the list. With 14 of the 21 LBs they have offered having committed (including Blue and Morris), they are working on flipping Florida pledge Vosean Joseph and look to have the inside track on landing Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Dillard's Kenneth Ruff.