Signing Day surprise: South Carolina flips defensive end recruit from South Florida

South Carolina is looking to add to its defensive line depth in a big way, and it got an early surprise on National Signing Day when the Gamecocks flipped a defensive end from South Florida.

Gilber Edmond is a 3-star WDE from Fort Pierce, Florida (Westwood). He was ranked the No. 70 weakside defensive end in the country, according to the 247Sports Composite. He’s listed at 6-foot-4, 215 pounds and had a reported 9 offers. He was only committed to USF since Jan. 21.

In the 2019 season, Edmond had 17 sacks, 22 tackles for a loss and 80 tackles overall.

Jon Santucci of TCPalm reported it was a hectic morning for Edmond. His NLI arrived on the table about 90 seconds before he signed and 30 minutes after the National Signing Day ceremony started.

Edmond thanked his family in an emotional announcement.

“I came a long way and I couldn’t have done it without the people in the room today,” he said.

FLIP! ⁦@FBWestwood1⁩ DE ⁦@gilbergotups⁩ signs with #SouthCarolina. Had been committed to #USF. #TCPrepZone pic.twitter.com/EfDkZ2QI3Y

— Jon Santucci (@JonSantucci) February 5, 2020

Here are his highlights from Hudl:

Keith Farner

A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.