Priority tight end recruit raves about South Carolina visit, gameday experience

Class of 2025 tight end Marshall Pritchett is a Charleston native who plays for Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School in Georgia. He has developed into a national-level tight end prospect, and Saturday he made his first recruiting visit to South Carolina.

Gamecock head coach Shane Beamer and tight ends coach Jody Wright made sure to give Pritchett (6-5, 205) and his family all the attention they could around an electric gameday backdrop.

“It was awesome,” Pritchett said. “That was my first time going there as a recruit and getting to experience it. I really enjoyed it, I had a really fun time. The love was definitely felt. That was probably one of the visits I’ve been to where you have to really reflect on because it’s going to be hard to top that, especially the way they treated me, the recruiters, the people, the fans, everybody. I had an amazing visit despite the loss.”

Pritchett, as a tight end who focuses on catching the football and making big plays down the field, loved the offensive shootout between the Gamecocks and Florida. In particular, he was caught up with how the Gamecocks used their tight ends.

“Really, that’s the main thing I looked for, to be able to see that,” Pritchett. “Trey Knox, getting to see him score first drive and then get a lot of catches throughout the game, and the other tight end, Joshua Simon, got to score too. Being able to see that, that’s all I can hope for. Seeing the way they like to spread the ball out and move the rock was very impressive. I think South Carolina and their offensive coordinator are in a really good position.”

Prior to the game, Pritchett was escorted to Beamer’s office for a sit-down conversation. The back and forth was more than he could have expected.

“The love was definitely felt,” Pritchett said. “That was my first time getting to meet him. I had been on the call with him and the rest of the staff Monday, but it was a great conversation. It was very impressive the fact they were able to take me down there and get to talk to him. I spent the whole day with Coach Wright. I spent time with him after the game. ...

“I spent a lot of quality time with a lot of high-up people in the program, which was very good.”

Wright has made Pritchett a priority target for his tight end room. That message was made clear time after time on the visit.

“Coach Wright, since the day he offered me, has made it obvious that he wants me to be a Gamecock,” Pritchett said. “That was the message. When they were referring to me, they referred to me as if I was already committed. That’s a good feeling. I could definitely tell I was wanted. They made that clear right off the rip. Coach Wright didn’t slow down. He continued telling me that after the game, and he texted me that today.”

Pritchett has an impressive offer list that, along with USC, includes Tennessee, Michigan, Purdue, Duke, Texas A&M, North Carolina, Southern Cal, Vanderbilt, West Virginia, UCF, Wisconsin, Cincinnati, Boston College and Georgia Tech. His recruiting is only starting to heat up and the visit to USC put the Gamecocks in a prominent position.

“It’s getting really hectic. It’s hard to really want to put the list down to a couple of schools, but they are definitely very high up there,” Pritchett said. “They’ll be in it until the end. I have no idea where I’m going right now. I’m not leaning to anyone, but I have a couple of schools that are really standing out and I would definitely say they are one of them.”

Pritchett would not reveal the other schools standing out, but he has taken other visits this season to Tennessee (for the USC game), North Carolina, Notre Dame, Georgia Tech and Miami. This coming weekend he will go to Florida State followed by trips to Penn State, Michigan and Wisconsin. Colorado is also a possibility for a visit, and he said he’ll definitely return to USC for the Clemson game.