There isn’t a team hotter on the recruiting trail than South Carolina and the Gamecocks just added another playmaker to their 2024 class in Rivals250 receiver Mazeo Bennett. The playmaker out of Greenville, S.C. is the fourth 2024 commitment Shane Beamer’s squad has added in the last two weeks.
“Honestly, it just felt like home ever since I stepped foot on campus for the first time,” Bennett said. “They just always had that same environment where it’s welcoming and you really know you’re wanted there and needed there. It was the whole entire staff and that’s the reason I feel like it’s only right. It was an entire staff effort to get me there.
“Coach D-Lo (Dowell Loggains), it doesn’t get any better than him,” he said. “We talk all the time. The ways he can put the ball in my hands is all I needed to hear. I know I’m an athlete. I know I can not only get the ball as an outside receiver but however I get the ball in my hands I can make something happen with it.”
“I hate that I’m joining (the movement) so late,” said Bennett, a former Tennessee commit. “I’m excited to let the world know I’m a Gamecock. I finally get to be with my guys Dante (Reno), Kam (Pringle), Wendell (Gregory), and it just feels great.
“We definitely gotta get Anthony Carrie from Florida,” he said. “I want to get Jonathan Paylor, Josiah Thompson, Blake Franks, and Kelvin Hunter. I need them with me at South Carolina.
“South Carolina has a lot of dogs on the field so the fact that Shane Beamer is going after those players, it doesn’t get any better than that,” Bennet said. “Why let them go out of the state when you can keep them in the state?”
“It’s how you can sit down with coach Beamer and talk about anything,” he said. “It’s never just football with him. It’s always anything else but football. At the end of the day, your life feels like it’s sort of consumed with football so when you’re able to talk to your head coach about everything but football it’s an amazing feeling.”
Bennett may not be a burner but he is plenty fast with reliable hands and a knack for finding the end zone. He is a good route runner that knows how to create separation and give quarterbacks a big window to throw into. Bennett isn’t the biggest receiver but, at 6-foot 165-pounds, he isn’t small either. He is very good when he has the ball in his hands and can make defenders miss in the open field. Look for Bennett to be an active recruiter for the Gamecocks in the 2024 class too.
