Recruiting Update, February 1

Ian Guerin February 1, 2022 @ 09:10 AM

The offer bender that Hilton Head defensive tackle [player_tooltip player_id="262573" first="Chris" last="Marable"] went over the weekend makes sense if you know the backstory. The 6-foot-4, 280-pound junior (he’s actually a little bigger now) racked up a slew of offers - including ones from Florida State, East Carolina, Wake Forest, South Florida and Georgia Tech - all in a span of three days. But why did that happen when it did? Simple. It was about the film finally getting to the right places. Marable’s dynamic junior season included 62 tackles, nine tackles for loss, an interception, a pass break up, on fumble recovery and a blocked kick. It gave everyone the impression that he came out of nowhere. In reality, coach BJ Payne has known about this “special talent” for three years. During Marable’s freshman season in 2019, the plan was to give the lineman three games on the junior varsity and then bring him up. However, Marable tore his ACL in the first JV game. Then, Marable and his father briefly moved to Baltimore in 2020 - and his team’s season there was limited to just one contest. He returned to Hilton Head prior to last fall. “[He] has a ridiculously high ceiling,” Payne said. “Big and long, 81-inch wingspan, 35-inch arm length.” Earlier in January, Marable (pictured above) snagged offers from Georgia State and Toledo. That brought his total to seven in 17 days. Not too shabby. Meanwhile, a bunch of Class of 2022 athletes made their verbal commitments known over the last week heading into Wednesday’s opening of regular signing period.   CLASS OF 2022 COMMITMENTS: [player_tooltip player_id="31310" first="Tyler" last="Smith"], RB, Gaffney - South Carolina State Jameer Toney, SS, Spring Valley - Limestone [player_tooltip player_id="259957" first="Garvin" last="Douglas"], QB, May River - Hutchinson Community College [player_tooltip player_id="153248" first="Drew" last="Settle"], QB, Chapman - Western Carolina Cam Tibbits, TE, St. James - North Greenville [player_tooltip player_id="200691" first="Tory" last="Kelly"], LB, Gray Collegiate - Wingate [player_tooltip player_id="200729" first="Nick" last="Sowell"], WR, Dutch Fork - Benedict [player_tooltip player_id="119250" first="Gray" last="Leaphart"], TE, Gilbert - Newberry [player_tooltip player_id="200749" first="Grant" last="Epps"], DL, Trinity Collegiate - South Carolina State Jaeon Allen, RB/DB, May River, South Carolina State [player_tooltip player_id="91225" first="Kamren" last="Johnson"], ATH, TL Hanna - Erskine [player_tooltip player_id="92205" first="Chase" last="Smith"], WR, Ridge View - Eastern Michigan [player_tooltip player_id="200731" first="Carlton" last="Terry"] II, WR, Conway - Wofford [player_tooltip player_id="89328" first="Spencer" last="McKinley"], K, Oceanside Collegiate - Western Carolina [player_tooltip player_id="153245" first="DJ" last="Black"], WR, Chapman - South Carolina Jackson Glasgow, OL, Aynor - Erskine   We’re awaiting final word on plenty more as we rapidly approach the final send off for the Class of 2022. If you have any that we missed, tag @prepredzonesc on Twitter and we’ll add it to the list.