South Carolina football recruiting: Gamecocks among schools "standing out" for big-time RB Anthony McFarland

The state of the running back position for the South Carolina Gamecocks after the 2016 season will be interesting to see. David Williams will be heading into his redshirt senior season in 2017, along with Rod Talley and Jamari Smith. We aren't sure how true freshmen C.J. Freeman and Rico Dowdle or redshirt freshman Mon Denson will turn out. That hasn't stopped the Gamecocks from continuing to recruit the position in hopes of finding a future star to line up in the backfield.

One player that the Gamecocks hope is part of the team down the road is 2017 Dematha (Md.) running back Anthony McFarland. McFarland, who shares a name with, but is not directly related to, LSU and NFL defensive tackle turned SEC Network analyst Anthony "Booger" McFarland, is 247's #3 all-purpose back and ranked 53rd in the country regardless of position. Needless to say, his offer sheet's pretty long: Alabama, Georgia, Maryland, Miami (Fla.), Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and the Gamecocks are among his 28 offers right now. That list is sure to get bigger as we head up to football season in about four months.

McFarland was part of The Opening regionals in Washington, D.C. this past weekend and chatted with SB Nation after the event. One of the notable parts of the conversation is that South Carolina is among the schools that are "sticking out" right now and are top of mind for him. McFarland hopes to pare things down to a top 15 by summer's end, and it wouldn't surprise us to see the Gamecocks make the cut.

Bobby Bentley and Lance Thompson are McFarland's recruiters of record.