South Carolina football recruiting: DE Tyreek Johnson commits

In-state DE Tyreek Johnson became the Gamecocks' second Saturday commitment from the class of 2017 to commit to Will Muschamp and the program. Johnson becomes the eighth player of the class to commit to play football at South Carolina and joins Eric Douglas, who committed this morning.

Johnson, a product of Lakewood High School in Sumter, is 6'4", 245 and was under the radar a little bit. His only other offer appeared to be Coastal Carolina set to move to FBS and the Sun Belt Conference in 2017. However, the Gamecocks were his favorite going in, and after visiting the South Carolina campus with his parents, he made his decision to commit today.

Johnson joins Jake Bentley, Summie Carlay, Dennis Daley, Eric Douglas, Stephen Guidry, Will Register and Damani Staley as players who have already pledged for the 2017 season. The Gamecocks now claim two defensive players in the class, as Staley is a linebacker. This is the fourth player from South Carolina to commit, and while it is still early in the recruiting cycle, it is good to see the staff looking inside state lines in hopes of mining talent with which to build a strong team around.