South Carolina Top 5 High School Talent Classes: Dutch Fork

Photo: Will Taylor Twitter

Josh Buchanan

October 6, 2020 @ 09:34 PM

<strong>South Carolina Top 5 High School Talent Classes: Dutch Fork</strong>   Next in the series we take a look at Dutch Fork who has several players on the radar.   Their head coach is Tom Knotts, 2020 National High School Football Coach of the Year after leading his team to a fourth straight state title in the state’s largest class. This finish led them to finish No. 11 in the High School Football America Top 100 rankings and No. 15 in the USA TODAY Super 25. Last season was Knotts’ 12<sup>th</sup> state title after he won six titles at Independence and one at West Charlotte.   Leading this group is wide receiver [player_tooltip player_id="59334" first="Elijah" last="Spencer"] (6’2, 190) who is committed to Charlotte. Spencer was second on the team with 50 catches for 843 yards and nine touchdowns in 2019. Before committing to Charlotte he had offers from Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Kent State, and Eastern Michigan. He is rated the #12 receiver and #42 overall prospect in the state.   Next on our list is athlete [player_tooltip player_id="59312" first="Will" last="Taylor"] (5’10, 160) who played quarterback at Ben Lippen in 2019 where he threw for 1,647 yards passing and 1,549 yards rushing with 19 tackles. He plays baseball and had been committed to Clemson as a baseball player for a while. Taylor decided to transfer to Dutch Fork after his junior year. This is a sleeper prospect who really should have a much better offer list. Taylor can run and is the type who could be a very good all-purpose player in college. Taylor got an offer from Dabo Swinney to play football a few weeks ago and announced he would commit to play both sports in college. We have Taylor ranked #21 overall and #7 wide receiver in the state.   The offensive line features two players we have ranked in our top 100 headlined by #50 [player_tooltip player_id="59344" first="Miles" last="Turner"] (6’7, 325) and #91 [player_tooltip player_id="59392" first="Shammond" last="Price"] (6’2, 280). Neither has any offers yet but keep an on them to pick up some FCS, D2, or D3 offers before signing day.   Tight end [player_tooltip player_id="59442" first="Griffin" last="Reid"] (6’4, 230) is the last prospect on offense and he does not have any offers but should pick some up. He is #130 overall and #7 tight end prospect in the state.   Last but not least, on defense they have two players to watch who don’t have any offers but could pick up interest by December. The first one is linebacker [player_tooltip player_id="59376" first="Edward" last="Owusu"] (6’0, 215). He had 50 tackles, nine tackles for loss, and a forced fumble last year. He is our #78 overall and #8 linebacker in the state.   Cornerback Trace Danley (5’11, 165) is a smaller defensive back who only runs in the 4.8s but plays more like a 4.65-4.70 speed defender. Danley can tackle and has decent ball skills. Expect him to get FCS and D2 looks.    