2027 Rankings Top 10 Writing Final Chapter

Between all the movement up and down the rankings, for the 102 names we've added this time around, the constant lies at the top.   A finite number of players can enter their final season of South Carolina high school ball knowing they've done everything necessary to be included in the Top 10 of our 2027 rankings. We've seen dynamic rushing performances. Manhandling blocking ability. Stat-stuffing quarterback play. Edge guys trying to stop it. And a couple players who seem to do more than one player should.   As we approach our 2026 regular season, those descriptions help tell the story our Top 10 has crafted for itself. But it's not the whole story.   Certainly, it doesn't include the final chapter.   That's what this fall will be about for the 10 human highlight reels we've come to call the Prep RedZone Class of 2027 Top 10.    [player_tooltip player_id='1172345' first='Trenton' last='Lynch'] RB, Spartanburg   Background: Before Lynch was a 5-foot-10, 190-pound wrecking ball of a tailback, he was a young kid with a boatload of promise. Little by little, as more size started to come, he also learned a thing or two about the game, how to keep himself fresh and available to do anything his team needed him to in a pinch. Don't believe us? Ask yourself why a guy who is on national platforms and recruiting boards is so adept at catching the football. It's not any great mystery. Lynch has always strived to be the best back in South Carolina. Whether you agree with that sentiment is up to you. But he's put himself into all of the conversations with his last three years of varsity production.   Legacy Time: Lynch isn't the only guy on this list who added to the expectations placed upon him with a college commitment. And when he declared he would go to Rutgers after this season, naturally it increased his personal thresholds for what would be considered successful this fall. At the end of it, Lynch's workhorse mentality should speak for itself, even if Spartanburg as a program can't make much noise in late November. It will have meant someone prevented Lynch from destroying them.    [player_tooltip player_id='756223' first='Nate' last='Carson'] OL, Irmo   Background: The fun part about watching Carson develop over time has been that everyone was seemingly waiting for him to start showing something less than perfect, or wear and tear from his size, or a battery of bad games as he crumpled from expectations. None of that ever came. The Yellow Jackets' left tackle just kept on pummeling would-be defenders intent on slowing down Irmo's offense by getting around or through him. For as much firepower as this team has had the last four years on that side of the ball, the quarterbacks have basically gone untouched. The last two seasons, Carson has had as big of a job in that claim as anyone.    Legacy Time: Carson saying publicly that he'd ink with the hometown school (which happens to be the University of South Carolina Gamecocks, if you're suffering from amnesia) means that his soon-to-be fan base is going to be making its way out to see him on Fridays. It's just sort of how USC fans roll. Attention means nothing to Carson's play. He strives for bigger stages and has been instrumental in Irmo's last two postseason runs. There's little reason to believe he'll be any different for another loaded Yellow Jackets' roster.   [player_tooltip player_id='1591712' first='Seth' last='Tillman'] DL, South Pointe   Clemson   Background: No one at South Pointe was going to be the guy last year other than the one who led the team to the state title behind one of the freakiest “Go Play Quarterback” moves we've seen in a while. But the Stallions were so freaking stacked that its often felt more like a game of Pick Your Poison on defense. Tillman's production value exceeded even the expectations stemming from his recruiting attention. After putting up 25 tackles for loss as a sophomore, he topped it with 27 as a junior in South Pointe's title run. He's also got 137 tackles over the last two years. It's not impossible to block Tillman. But it helps if you have three bodies to slow him down.    Legacy Time: Even for South Pointe, the realistic expectations are not what they normally are. Unaffiliated observers believe a state title run would be a credit to another influx of talent. Or, in other terms, some of that new talent rallying around the Clemson commit. For all the size, speed and power on this roster, Tillman can make his all-time mark in the South Pointe annals by creating something special this fall at a school that seemingly always requires something special.   [player_tooltip player_id='1215391' first='Jayven' last='Williams'] RB, Summerville    Background: In the spring of 2024, we had already heard about this up-and-coming tailback at Summerville who'd blown the doors off every JV game he'd played the previous fall as a freshman. The only reason he wasn't on the varsity that year, we were told, was because of depth and deserved touches for the Green Wave's seniors in 2023. It didn't take much longer for the rest of the state to start seeing something happening in real time. Williams rushed for 2,000 yards as a sophomore on the Summerville varsity. Then matched it again as a junior. He's got legit top-end college speed and has had it for years, proving tailbacks don't have to all look like Derrick Henry to put up crazy numbers of their own.   Legacy Time: Williams' value to his program only increased in the offseason when his offensive 1-2 punch mate departed for Oceanside (more on that below). The Green Wave aren't going to stop throwing; there is too much talent returning on the outside and too much offseason development into the team's quarterbacks for that too happen. But Williams is the new centerpiece. If Summerville makes it back to a third straight state title game, he'll be the biggest reason why.   [player_tooltip player_id='232624' first='Xavier' last='Means'] QB, Northwestern    Background: A year ago, Means was still widely viewed as a project. He was taking over for a DI quarterback who threw for just shy of 10,000 career yards in three years of high school and everyone who paid attention to Northwestern football believed a downgrade was about to happen. Enter Means. The then-junior threw for 2,873 yards and 25 touchdowns against just eight picks. He also ran for 1,234 yards and another 11 scores. In 5A football. Against some pretty good teams. In Northwestern's four playoff games alone, he accounted for 18 combined passing/rushing touchdowns. And his worst passing game of the postseason run had him completing “only” two-thirds of his attempts. Oh, and he only threw one pick in that run.   Legacy Time: Given what the big dog of Class 5A football has done and is expected to do against this fall, it would be impossible to say that Means has a title-or-bust mentality to his senior year. While helping to unseat Dutch Fork would be a memory for the ages, the East Carolina commit needs to only be himself without any element of surprise. Teams will attempt to contain his running ability and force him to throw. If he can manipulate his quick throws and the occasional deep ball, go ahead and expect another huge campaign.   [player_tooltip player_id='1036721' first='Tre' last='Segarra'] RB, Byrnes   Background: The road toward a verbal commitment to LSU was a winding one for Segarra. He entered high school as a sure-fire lock to turn the soccer landscape on its head and had all the promise to do just that. As it turns out, his athleticism worked out just as good on the gridiron as it did the pitch. He ran for 1,100 yards and 11 touchdowns as a freshman, only to suffer an injury that limited him to just four games as a sophomore. When he came back, oh boy, did he come back. Segarra ran for 1,460 yards and 17 touchdowns and hauled in another 19 passes for 198 yards and four scores as a junior.    Legacy Time: Segarra knew what he was getting into when he made that pledge to one of the true blue bloods of college football. He understood a massive fanbase was going to be following his every move. More importantly, he knows how to handle the background noise. Segarra had all eyes on him last fall (and all offseason) and has the ability to do enough in the passing game to make a high-profile offense with someone new calling the plays go to heights unseen at Byrnes in some time.   [player_tooltip player_id='779428' first='Tajeh' last='Watson-Martin'] ATH, Westside    Background: Watson-Martin turned heads at a PRZ regional event near the end of his eighth grade year and hasn't stopped since. As a freshman at Belton-Honea Path, he started in the secondary and put up 57 tackles and six interceptions. Then, as a sophomore, he added offensive and even more special teams responsibilities. As a junior, he was nearly unstoppable, leading the Bears to a second straight state championship game with 1,101 receiving yards, four more interceptions and another 500 or so yards in the return game.    Legacy Time: What Watson-Martin hasn't done is be part of a state title team. Making the short move over to Westside probably increased his chances despite moving to a higher classification, but in the Rams he won't have to be the focal point all by himself. He's now part of a team that is loaded on offense, is more than capable on defense and has shown an ability to light up some scoreboards along the way. Watson-Martin only makes the Rams that much more dangerous.    [player_tooltip player_id='1094944' first='Aiden' last='Manavian'] QB, Oceanside Collegiate    Background: Two games into the 2023 playoffs, Manavian was thrust into action as a freshman. We remember the sentiment expressed by everyone around the Lower State playoffs that year, believing the Landsharks were about to see a quick exit. By November 30, 2023, a star had been delivered that would carry on for years to come. That night, Manavian was front and center of all the pictures highlighting Oceanside's state title. All of 369 days later, Manavian was holding up another championship trophy. He wasn't done. When another 356 days worst had revolved around the sun, No. 3 was being jolted into the air, too. Manavian is on the brink of 10,000 career passing yards and a fourth title, something very few players, let alone quarterbacks, can even go after.   Legacy Time: That possible fourth title is all that matters to Manavian right now. He's gone through some of the college recruiting scene, both getting offers and then seeing them not come to fruition the way he thought they might. All of the audibles with him revolve around his lack of height. But if he can do what he's favored to do this fall, a lot of that will turn into individual opportunity. You can't teach height. But you also can't teach winning. Manavian knows how to do that better than the vast majority of high school quarterbacks who have come through the Palmetto State.   [player_tooltip player_id='755914' first='Jaiden' last='Bryant'] DL, Irmo    Background: For all of the movement in and out of Irmo, Bryant is a homegrown talent who has been producing since his freshman season. In nine games as a freshman, he had 44 tackles, five tackles for loss and three sacks. As a sophomore, his numbers jumped to 85, 20 and 14.5. Then, as a junior when everyone was staring at him, he responded with another 75, 16 and 10. It's why he was invited to the Under Armour All-America game and had offers from 20-plus Power 4 programs, including Miami, where he recently committed after initially picking LSU. While we have no reason to believe he'll back off his Miami pledge, that won't stop others from continuing to run a full-court press on him this fall.     Legacy Time: For as much as Irmo has accomplished the last three years, a state title has eluded the Yellow Jackets. There was the Lower State defeat to South Florence in 2023 and then back-to-back championship game losses to Northwestern. And while last year's game got out of hand, it's hard to ignore that the first two were single-score games. That's where Bryant comes in. His ability to disrupt a single big play in the playoffs could be the difference between another “almost” season and one with the ultimate reward.   [player_tooltip player_id='378969' first='Jaiden' last='Kelly-Murray'] ATH, Oceanside Collegiate (pictured)   Background: Kelly-Murray didn't simply see early playing time during his freshman year at Summerville. He started at safety and put up 110 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, four interceptions, 10 pass break-ups and a fumble recovery. What we didn't know at the time was that his defensive prowess was a product of athletic ability and instincts. He never had any real attention of playing that much defense. As we've seen the last two seasons, Kelly-Murray is an elite receiver who has accumulated 2,159 yards and 27 touchdowns off 145 catches during his sophomore and junior years. He also tacked in 313 yards and four more scores rushing and another 450-plus yards in the return game.    Legacy Time: Kelly-Murray is the football equivalent of a heart breaker who - as much as we don't want to say it - probably has more than his share of haters right now. He initially committed to South Carolina before backing off the Gamcocks in favor of Colorado. Inside of the last eight months, he also left Summerville for Oceanside. We don't need to get into why that may ruffle some feathers. We won't fill in the blanks on the college switch-a-roo, but the reason for the second move seems fairly obvious. Kelly-Murray wants a ring. It's eluded him the last three years with the Green Wave and the Landsharks are the predominant favorite to win the 3A crow this fall. Nothing should be assumed, but his legacy will be fulfilled if he helps Oceanside win its fourth straight.

Between all the movement up and down the rankings, for the 102 names we've added this time around, the constant lies at the top.