One of the top defensive end prospects in the country that Deion Barnes was recruiting while at Penn State was Mekai Brown (6-7 230) of Greenwich, CT. But not long into is tenure at South Carolina, Barnes offered Brown for the Gamecocks.
That prior relationship is working in the Gamecocks’ favor because Barnes has gotten Brown to strongly consider his new program. So much so, Brown has set a two-day unofficial visit to Columbia for April 8-10.
“I’ve been in touch with Coach Barnes, the entire staff, too, phone calls and everything, so it’s been good,” Brown said. “I feel very good about him. He’s a great coach. He’s coached a lot of good players. I was just very excited that he wanted to bring me along to South Carolina. I feel very strong about them. I feel very good about them, for sure.”
Of course, this week Brown has been helping his family dig out from under more than 20 inches of snow. He knows he can leave the shovels behind when he comes south for the visit.
“I’m looking forward to that, for sure,” Brown said.
Brown has also committed to some other unofficial visits this spring. Here’s his schedule published on his Instagram:
- FLORIDA 3-3
- NORTH CAROLINA 3-11
- MISSOURI 3-16
- OLE MISS 3-19
- TEXAS A&M 3-27
- PENN STATE 4-3
- SOUTH CAROLINA 4-8
- KENTUCKY 4-17
- NOTRE DAME 4-24
- UCLA 4-29
He also cited Southern Cal for one of his spring stops. He has not yet set any official visits, and he’ll do that after he takes his spring trips. He also picked up an offer on Monday from Miami.
Last season, Browne made game visits to Penn State, Tennessee, Ohio State, and Southern Cal. He also visited Tennessee, Ole Miss, and Kentucky in January.
As a junior, Brown was in on 68 tackles with 29 quarterback pressures, 11 tackles for loss and 10 sacks.