South Carolina will be hosting several recruits for official visits this weekend, and one who could eventually end up in the 2024 class is DT Jerome Simmons (6-4 333) of Highland JC, KS. The Bamberg native will fly out of the Kansas City airport early Friday morning and will meet his parents in Columbia for the weekend of recruiting activities.
Simmons also visited USC for the Clemson game. It was then he got to meet up with defensive line coach Travian Robertson and the two have stayed on contact since then.
“Really and truly, they want me back, and we’ve been talking on the phone a little bit like how the visit is going to go out,” Simmons said. “We are going to pretty much do everything you are supposed to do on a visit, and then keep talking a little bit more to see like where my head is at because they want me bad. They are up there, but I want to talk to them face to face.”
Simmons took an official visit to Louisiana last weekend, and this is the only other official visit he has scheduled at this point. He is not signing until February, so he doesn’t feel any pressure to make a quick decision.
“I’m going to take my top five after the Carolina visit and just go from there,” he said. “I do want to take other visits, but if there aren’t any coaches really talking to me that I have offers from, that’s not put their foot forward right now, they pretty much are not going to be in my top five. So, I’ll be ready to make my top five list after this visit.”
Simmons named Coastal Carolina and Georgia as two other programs he’s considering. He made an unofficial visit to Coastal while he was home for the Thanksgiving holiday. Still, Simmons admitted the possibility of a commitment to USC this weekend does exist.
“If they are talking the good talk, probably,” Simmons said.
Simmons completed his two seasons of competition at Highland with 50 tackles, 11 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks. He will have three years to play two at the next level.