When South Carolina coach Shane Beamer fired offensive line coach Lonnie Teasley after the LSU loss and replaced him with Shawn Elliott, he knew the move would impact recruiting for that position. Teasley was the lead recruiter for offensive linemen and had built strong relationships with the prospects on their board.
The committed offensive linemen have held firm to this point, and Beamer and Elliott are working in tandem, along with others in the recruiting office, to keep the connections strong with the 2027 targets, including OT Joshua Sam-Epelle of Douglasville, GA.
“Dealing with Carolina, they’ve always been with me since my freshman year, and they are heavy in my recruiting right now, and top two for sure,” Sam-Epelle said. “That change definitely hurt me. Me and Teasley were locked in. That was my guy. I talked to him about everything. I’m not too really mad with the staff change. It’s a business nowadays. Coach Elliott, I’ve heard a lot about him. I’m just glad to see what he can do for this O-line for the rest of the season.”
How important does Beamer view Sam-Epelle for this class? He made it a point to visit him at his school during their first open week.
“We had a sit-down,” Sam-Epelle said. “His message was, a lot of head coaches don’t go see players, especially on the bye week. He told me how important I am to this recruiting class, and they hold me high. A lot of head coaches don’t go out to see players, so the fact that he took the time to come down to my school and talk to me, that put them up there a lot. They were already up there, but that pushed them up even more.”
Then came the Teasley firing, and Sam-Epelle admits that his feeling for the Gamecocks has not been as strong as it was prior to that.
“I’d say it was (strong) with Teasley being on the staff, but being that it’s a coaching change and I haven’t really built that relationship with Coach Elliott so far, I’d say they’ve declined a bit, but they are still in my top two. “I’m going try to take some OVs in the spring. I just want to get as much information as I possibly can before I finally shut this thing down and make it official. No stones unturned.”
Sam-Epelle named Georgia as the other team in his top two with USC. He has visited Athens for games twice this season. He was at USC for the SC State game and is returning this Saturday for the Alabama game. He has also been to a game at Miami, and he is returning to Hard Rock Stadium for the Syracuse game. He is also planning to visit Nebraska on November 1st for the Southern Cal game.