South Carolina has put in a lot of work with SAF Kennedy Green (6-2 195) of Douglasville, GA, and as his July 11th commitment date approaches, the Gamecocks are right in the mix for him with Mississippi State, where he was once committed, and with North Carolina.
Green made his official visit to USC the first weekend in May. He visited North Carolina earlier this month and was at Mississippi State last weekend.
Gamecock secondary coach Torrian Gray has a history of recruiting big safeties, and he is continuing his efforts to land Green.
“I talked to Coach Gray today (Sunday),” Green said. “I talk to Coach Gray very often. He knows everything about all my visits. Same as Coach Kevie (Thompson) at Mississippi State. They know about all my visits and everything. But South Carolina is pushing very hard. I love how they’re still communicating with me, even though my official was literally like two months ago. And they’re still pushing hard for me, and they’re still keeping that position open. And with North Carolina, it’s just all the years of NFL experience on the staff. The coaches know what it takes to be great and what’s it must take to get to the next level. They do a really good job of staying in touch, also.”
Kennedy said as he compares and contrasts the three situations, he’ll be check off some boxes to see which one offers him more of the opportunities he’s seeking.
“The playing time, which is pretty even at both spots,” Green said. “The team camaraderie, like how close is the team together? Another thing is, how does my family see this school? How does my family adapt to the environment of the school? Because I have a little sister that’s going to want to come up to see games, I need to make sure she feels like she’s in a safe environment. I want my mom to feel safe if she has to come up for a weekend. When I go to school, it’s not just that they’re getting me; they’re getting me plus my whole family, so I want to make sure they’re also comfortable with whatever school I go to.”
And what will make the decision ever harder is that Green has a very good comfort level at the three schools.
“I feel like I’m me at the three schools,” he said. “We have a very transparent relationship. I feel like I’m able to have that open line of communication from the head coach all the way down to the equipment manager. My mom also had that open communication with all schools. So it’s kind of hard to say if one is higher-ranked than the other because I talked to both equally. I could communicate with both head coaches equally. And if anything’s going on, they both know. So it’s not really one that’s beating the other.”
As for the question about playing time, Green has been told that he will probably get on the field early in some capacity.
“Coach Gray was telling me at worst I should be running down on special teams,” Green said. “If I’m the guy that I say I am or I’m the guy that Coach Gray knows he recruited, I should be running down on special teams and being in that second group, making my way up to be a starter as a freshman. The same with Mississippi State and North Carolina. They want me to definitely come and play special teams right away. Coach is looking for me to be in that two-deep group going into fall camp. He wants me to be with the ones. So the opportunity to play is at all three spots.”
Green said he’s been approached by 247Sports to make his commitment live on their YouTube channel, and the plan is to make his announcement around 8:15 PM from a local restaurant.
Leave a Reply