DE Josiah Sturdivant (6-4 230) of Wake Forest, NC, probably thought his recruiting days were over when he committed to Rutgers on May 30th. If so, he couldn’t have been more wrong.
Rutgers was the only P4 offer for Sturdivant at the time of his commitment. NC State was the next to step with an offer on June 18th. Four days later, it was South Carolina jumping on board. And things really heated up for Sturdivant on Wednesday with offers from Tennessee, Mississippi State, and Vanderbilt.
While he continues to maintain his commitment to the Scarlet Knights, Sturdivant can’t overlook the interest he is now garnering from others. With the Gamecocks, it started with his performance in a camp earlier this month.
“About two or three months ago, the recruiting coach, Sterling Harris, reached out,” Sturdivant said. “He said he wanted me to come down for camp. Then he called again and said he wanted me to come down for camp. Then Coach (Deion) Barnes called. Since they showed that they had a good amount of interest, I just went down for the camp. I just went out there and did my thing. A few days later, they called saying they were going to give me the offer. It’s a good opportunity to have. As you know, I’m committed to Rutgers. As of right now, full head of steam on Rutgers. Coach Yano (Bob Fraser), he believes in me. He has my back. I think South Carolina is a great offer to have, but Rutgers is home. I’m not shutting it down as of now, but I’m not doing any OVs.”
Rutgers has been his only official visit to this point.
The camp visit to Columbia was the first time for Sturdivant on the USC campus. He was there with his trainer, and was also joined by his friend DE Jayden Broadie, who was also offered by the Gamecocks. Sturdivant took some time to check out the campus and the facilities.
“We rode by the stadium. It was pretty nice,” he said. “A great campus for sure. I loved it. It was nice. It was definitely nice. I think a lot of Big 10 and SEC schools have very nice campuses, though. I definitely think it was a great opportunity to be down there and get a feel for South Carolina.”
The visit and camp performance also gave Barnes a chance to get a feel for Sturdivant.
“He said he likes my competitiveness. I came out, competed, won every rep, did what I had to do,” Sturdivant said. “He also liked how when he would say something to me, I would face it. So I was a coachable player. And of course, he saw my ability to get off the ball, bend the edge, and use my hands.”
Last season, Sturdivant was in on 51 tackles with 18.5 tackles for loss and eight sacks.
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