OT Grayson Mains (6-5 265) of Suwanee, GA took a pair of personal visits last week, and now he feels he can make an educated decision within the next couple of weeks. But he will still take multiple official visits after his decision. Thursday Mains was at Tennessee. Friday and Saturday he spent several hours on the USC campus.
“We got there about Noon, 1:00 PM Friday and were able to tour campus and got the self-guided tour going,” Mains said. “It was great, a beautiful campus. We got to go see the outside of the facilities and the field. Man, that thing is amazing. Saturday morning, we were able to go over to the athletic housing and look around there, and really just finished up walking around campus and the downtown area.”
Prior to the pandemic Mains was able to get in some visits, and Tennessee and USC are the only places he’s seen since the dead period started last March. He liked a lot of what he saw in Knoxville and Columbia, but if he had to rank the visits, he’d put the USC trip on top.
“Probably number one, with Tennessee being very close because they are both beautiful campuses out of the places I’ve been to,” Mains said. “We really couldn’t get into anything (at Tennessee. We had to look from the outside thru windows, but I mean it’s top-notch, D-1 program, they still looked amazing. I’ve also gotten to Duke, Michigan State and West Virginia before the pandemic.”
USC, Tennessee and Michigan State are the top three with Mains. Now that he’s been on each campus, he feels the time has come to get down to the business of making a decision.
“I definitely feels it helps speed up the process with finally being able to get on to campuses,” Mains said. “Seeing everything and trying to figure out what will be best for me. I feel I could have a decision here within a week or two. One of the main things before I committed was just seeing the campuses. We’ve done all the virtual visits, so I’m just really going to go back into research about the college itself, the academics and the major I want to do. Seeing what is a better fit for me because football only lasts so long, you’ve got to be able to do something after it. So, whatever suits me best for that future and a lot of talking about it with my parents.”
USC and Tennessee are the top two with Mains as he moves forward toward a decision.
“They’re both great staffs and their both new,” Mains said. “It will really be where I feel I can fit in best with the coaching staff who is showing that they really want me, that I’m a number one priority, and that they will be able to develop my skills over the next three to five years depending on how long I stay.”
Mains has set an official visit to USC for June 11th and is talking with Tennessee and Michigan State about visits as well.
Mains is rated a three-star and is ranked the #62 offensive tackle nationally in the 247Sports Composite.
Other notes:
- USC in the top 10 with WR Dane Key of Lexington, KY. The others are Virginia, Kentucky, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Oregon, Mississippi State, Arkansas, Virginia Tech and Purdue.
- USC offered 2024 OT Kam Pringle (6-7 295) of Woodland.
- Hammond RB CJ Stokes has set official visits with Missouri for June 11th and Michigan June 18th.
- South Florida offered SAF Randy Caldwell of Mauldin.
