OT Jabian Shabatt (6-7 295) of Kernersville, NC made his official visit to South Carolina over the weekend, and thought the trip could not have gone better, especially with his family with him to take it all in.
“In general, the visit was awesome. It was great. I had a great time,” Shabazz said. “My main thing was to make sure my people were good, and make sure they were getting along well with the coaches and other people. I liked that the people there made us feel at home. They are like a family there. That’s why I like it so much.”
Shabazz also had a goal on the visit of talking to as many USC players as he could and pick their brains about their experiences inside the Gamecock program.
“I was able to hang out with Josiah (Thompson), the left tackle, and with Blake (Franks), one of the guards,” Shabazz said. “They pretty much love it. They love it a lot. The All-American Josiah, he’s a really chill guy. It’s more like a family, not all like business. Yes, it’s still a business, but they’ve got people that care about you. That’s what I like.”
South Carolina got the first crack at impressing Shabazz, and now the Gamecocks will have to see if any of his other suitors can match or surpass his weekend in Columbia.
“They’ve always been at the top, but right now, they are at the tippy-top,” he said. “They’ve got the number one spot right now until I go see these other schools. Pretty much now, what I’m going to do, I’m going to be comparing other schools. I would say South Carolina basically checked all my boxes. I’ve just got to see if schools can check pretty much all the boxes. see if I can feel that same feeling that I felt when I was at South Carolina.”
This coming weekend, Shabazz heads up to Penn State. He will visit Tennessee on June 13th. He goes to Ohio State on June 20th, and then he is scheduled for a mid-week visit to NC State.