Greenville High DE Franklin Whitley will take in his third USC visit of the season this Saturday when he returns to Williams-Brice Stadium for the Gamecocks’ matchup with Alabama. The game will give Whitley the chance to watch two of his top teams together on the same field.
Last weekend, Whitley was in Columbia for his official visit with the Gamecocks. The game didn’t turn out as he hoped it would, but otherwise, Whitley got everything out of the weekend he was hoping for, including positive conversations with head coach Shane Beamer and defensive ends coach Sterling Lucas.
“It was a great experience. You know, it’s an in-state school, so they are pushing really hard for me,” Franklin said. “I talked to Coach Beamer. I talked to some of the players. I talked to the D-line coach and met with him. It was a pretty good experience. Everything was great. There was a great tour they gave us of the campus. Great food. Everything was pretty good.”
Whitley hung out with one of his former high school buddies, Gamecock offensive line Blake Franks. he also had plenty of conversations with Beamer and Lucas about what his future with the Gamecocks would look like.
“They were talking with me about how I could really fit in their program,” Whitley said. “They would love to have an in-state kid stay home. Talking about my specific position group, they could see me playing everywhere on the defensive line. That was great to hear.”
Right now, Whitley said South Carolina and Tennessee are the two programs pushing the hardest for him, so the official visit just further strengthened the Gamecocks’ standing with him.
“They are pretty up high,” he said. “I’m really interested in them. I’m going back this weekend for the game against Alabama. I’ll be looking forward to that as well.”
Whitley, this season, has also been to Clemson, Virginia Tech, Georgia, Georgia Tech and Alabama for games, and to Florida State for an official visit. He plans to go to Tennessee November 1st for the Oklahoma game. He has official visits scheduled with Alabama November 15th, Clemson November 19th, Florida November 22nd and Tennessee November 29th.
Clemson remains very much involved as well with defensive ends coach Chris Rumph keeping up the contact.
“Me and Coach Rumph, we text every day,” Whitley said. “We’ve been talking about plans for the visit, looking forward to and getting everything sorted out. Coach Swinney has texted me a couple of times. They are showing a lot of interest.”
Through eight games this season, Whitley has 25 tackles with 10 tackles for loss, three sacks and two pass deflections according to MaxPreps stats.