Winter Park DT to South Carolina
Jaquaze Sorrells and others commit on National Signing Day.
Top SEC programs chased imposing Under Armour All-American defensive tackle Jaquaze Sorrells.
The formidable lineman can easily dispatch opponents in the trenches, but he also wears his emotions on his sleeve and couldn’t hold back tears after signing with South Carolina Wednesday, picking the Gamecocks over Penn State, Alabama and Florida.
Sorrells shed tears during the ceremony naming him an Under Armour All-American in November. He did so again after announcing his decision on National Signing Day.
“I’m just so emotional because I overcame so much,” said Sorrells, who transferred to Winter Park from Largo High for his senior season.
“My mom, my family period. We just overcame so much. Obviously coming from Largo, Fla., a lot people don’t make it out, so really this is just so emotional for
me just because I’m going to that next level and I never seen myself coming this far.”.
Some of the top college football coaches, however, expect Sorrells to have a bright future.
Despite late visits from Alabama coach Nick Saban and Florida coach Dan Mullen, Sorrells said neither team was really in the picture and it came down to South Carolina and Penn State, but the Gamecocks were the team to beat in the end.
“It just felt like home ... all the coaches and players … every movement I made, everything felt like home,” Sorrells said. “They got a great plan in place for me; so did Penn State. Both of those schools were narrowed down to my top two schools.
“Honestly, I just felt like I made the best decision for myself.’
Sorrells was once committed to UF but pulled back his pledge before his junior season. Mullen, fresh off his first season as Gators’ head coach, was in to visit Sorrells in the past week, as did Saban.
Sorrells took an official visit to Tuscaloosa during the weekend, but he ultimately picked another SEC school.
“I don’t care for peer pressure,” he said. “All those schools who came in got the same answer out of me. I got my top three schools. If they wanted me to visit, I wasn’t interested.”
He will work with Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp, who is well known for developing top defensive players.
He never met Muschamp while the coach was at Florida, but he is very familiar with former Florida assistant and now South Carolina defensive coordinator Travaris Robinson.
He said he appreciated everything Muschamp had to say throughout the process.
“He wasn’t selling me anything. He was just keeping it blood right with me. The whole time throughout the whole recruiting process since I got recruited by South Carolina, it’s been real and it’s been consistent,” Sorrells said.