College football recruiting is a cruel game.

South Carolina commitment Chris Smith has been committed to the Gamecocks since the summer and was ready to turn in his signed papers to enroll early at school this week.

But things have changed at South Carolina, and Will Muschamp is calling the shots now instead of Steve Spurrier, which is to who Smith originally gave his commitment to play.

And according to a report from The State, Muschamp has a different plan for how he would like to allocate his scholarship resources.

The report says that Smith still has an offer from the Gamecocks, but Muschamp would prefer that he enroll in the summer as a grey shirt, allowing his scholarship to count towards the next recruiting class.

Based on what Smith’s high school coach, Strait Herron, told The State, that may not be his choice:

“It’s important to him to get somewhere midyear, so he is going to look around and see if there are some Division One schools that need a DB or a slot receiver-type player that would still have a spot open for a midyear kid. He’s told me that he still wants to be at South Carolina, but if the opportunity is there for him to go midyear he’s probably going to go with it.”

It will be interesting to see how this one plays out.