The South Carolina Gamecocks have their first five-star commit since Jadeveon Clowney in their 2019 recruiting class. Zacch Pickens, strong-side defensive end prospect, committed to the Gamecocks back on May 25 of this year.
According to 247sports, Pickens is rated as the number one player in the state of South Carolina and the top SDE prospect in the 2019 class. They also have him as the #17 player overall.
What some may not know about Pickens though is that he also takes some snaps on the offensive side of the ball.
Pickens' head coach at TL Hanna High School, Jeff Herron, told the Evening Sports Page that Zacch came to him last winter around January bugging him about wanting to play running back.
"I did it in spring practice just to kind of appease him - see if we could get him to shut up. I honestly didn't think he would be very good at it. And...he was."
In the Yellow Jacket's last game against Greenwood High School, Pickens was the team's leading rusher with 77 yards and scored two touchdowns. He also recorded four tackles from his defensive end position.
"He doesn't do it all the time but he played more snaps last week than he has. Early in the year he was playing about two snaps a game. Last week he got close to probably 20."
"Some of that's because one of our fullbacks has been injured but some of it's because people don't like to tackle him."
No doubt that the 6'5", 268 pound senior would be quite the intimidator to opposing defenses with the ball in his hands.
"That's become a pretty good weapon for us. It's kind of like going to a rec league game and seeing the biggest kid run the ball. But he's very talented."
Pickens has scored in every game he has played for TL Hanna this season and has amassed eight total touchdowns in his six games.
"He's a fast kid. He's got good agility, certainly for his size. There's a lot of people that get the chance to tackle him and they're not sure they want to take him."
Photo by Austin Silvey (Copyright Silvey Media)
Comments