Much-traveled OT David Conner (6-6 315) of Andrew Junior College in Cuthbert, GA, will make his first-ever visit to South Carolina this weekend. Conner said he and his parents will arrive in Columbia on Thursday night and stay through the weekend.
Conner has had quite the college football journey. Had it not been for a now-defunct SEC transfer rule that required a player to sit out for a year for transferring to another league program, Conner would have gone straight from the University of Florida to USC.
“That would have been my location after the first time I hit the Transfer Portal my freshman year if it wasn’t for that SEC rule,” Connor said. “That was the destination. That was going to happen. It came around again, and everything picked up. My recruitment picked up. I started getting more offers, putting together great film. They started reaching out. The coaches started following. We started getting on the phone talking, and then we scheduled a visit so I can get up there and see it in person.”
Conner lived in Atlanta before transferring to Deerfield Beach, FL. He signed with Florida in December of 2021 and enrolled the next May. Nearly a year later, he entered the Portal for the first time and landed at Colorado. Things did not go well in Boulder, including a pec injury, and Conner returned to the Portal in April of 2024. A little over a month later, Conner enrolled at Texas State for what turned out to be another short stay.
“I wasn’t the same guy anymore. I wasn’t the same on the field,” Connor said. “I didn’t have the same speed, strength, all that. I had to build that up. So, I took that year at Texas State to kind of rehab, grow, and get the feel back. It wasn’t completely there yet, and I just felt like I needed a year to get back between the lines, get back and play for real. Me and my team decided we should go JUCO for a couple of months, handle business, get back on the field, and show the whole country what we already knew, that I’m one of those ballers for real. We went out there, did that, and now it’s just up to my decision I’ll make next month.”
The Gamecocks have not yet offered Conner, but based off the conversations he’s had with their offensive line coaches and recruiting staff, that could come this weekend.
“They are looking for offensive linemen, guys who are ready to come in and play right now and who can make an instant impact,” Connor said. “They feel like I’m one of those guys that can do that at the guard position and the tackle position. That’s been our main conversation leading up to this week. “I think they should (offer). I don’t think any other JUCO lineman is better than me. If they want the best, then they should offer.”
Conner has picked up offers from Auburn, Arkansas and Syracuse in the last month. He’s also getting strong interest from Oklahoma and North Carolina.
“I’m not too locked in to anybody right now,” Connor said. “I’m still weighing everybody. I plan to make my decision come that first week in December. I’m going to go to North Carolina. I’ll probably take a trip to Syracuse. I’ll probably take a trip to Arkansas. I think I’m going to set one up for Oklahoma.”
Unlike the young high school recruit going on visits for the first time and looking to be wined and dined, Conner said these visits for him will be all business.
“I’ve been around a long time. I’ve been on a bunch of visits,” Connor said. “Nothing on a visit is going to too much excite me because I know the real at the end of the day. I’m just interested in getting to know people, get a feel for the people, build a couple of relationships, and just see if I feel like that’s a place I could be at for the next two years.”
Conner does have ties to the state of South Carolina because his father grew up in the Holly Hill area.