USC has its 5-star for the 2020 class. A signed letter-of-intent from Hammond School DE Jordan Burch arrived at the USC football office Thursday night and the Gamecocks put out a tweet to confirm his inclusion in their class. Burch becomes the 25th and final member of a class that is ranked 18th in the 247Sports composite.

The drama around Burch and his eventual destination lasted over two months. He publicly committed to USC December 18th on national television but said he would not sign until February 5th when the school would hold a ceremony for all signees.

He took a surprise, two-day unofficial visit to LSU January 25-26 and followed that up with an official visit to USC last weekend. He had said LSU was second on his list when he committed to the Gamecocks.

Signing Day Wednesday came and neither Burch nor his mother would talk with the media to confirm the signing and sending in the LOI to USC. When Will Muschamp held his press conference at 4:30 PM Wednesday, he could not talk about Burch because USC had not received his papers.

The wait continued thru Wednesday night, Thursday morning and Thursday afternoon with plenty of conjecture and rumors about what was going on. Would Burch follow thru on his commitment to USC, or was there a power play in place for him to flip to LSU?

Burch represents another, big in-state recruiting victory for Muschamp, a 5-star defensive line he can pair with his 5-star signee from last season DT Zacch Pickens.

Muschamp issued this statement about Burch Thursday night:

“It’s a great way to close out our 2020 signing class with Jordan Burch deciding to stay home and play for the University of South Carolina. He is a wonderful person and I’m excited that he will be part of the Gamecock family. We really appreciate his mother, Henri, trusting us and sending her son to the in-state school. Jordan is an explosive athlete, extremely smart and versatile player who can do a lot of things on the football field and I can’t wait to coach him.”