Taeshawn Alston has one more season to suit up in the green and white uniform as a Vance County Viper before he trades those colors for the garnet and black of the University of South Carolina.
As of Tuesday, Alston has committed to play football for the SEC school located in Columbia, SC.
Alston and Vipers Coach Aaron Elliott were on Sports Talk Wednesday to talk about the recruiting process and what led to Alston’s decision to become a Gamecock.
“Coach Beamer is amazing,” Alston said, referring to Head Coach Shane Beamer, son of legendary Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer, adding that it “felt like home, then and there,” when he paid a visit to the school. “It just clicked with me.”
He’d been on their radar since April 2023, and Alston said he liked everything about the coaching staff – how they treat the players and how, in turn, the players treated recruits like him who were visiting.
And then there’s the “Game Day atmosphere,” he said, surrounding the famed Williams-Brice Stadium, home of the Gamecocks.
Being the focus of coaches’ attention during the recruiting process was fun, Alston said. “It was good, (but) sometimes it was stressful.” He named UNC-CH, Virginia Tech and Rutgers as other schools that were interested in what he could bring to their programs.
As a coach, Elliott said he encouraged Alston to “find a place that best fits him – a place that’s going to show him love, that wants him to be there…and wants him to grow as a player.”
When schools contact Elliott about his players, it’s always “measurables” that they want to know about: How fast can he run? How tall is he? How does he move? What are his grades like?
“Taeshawn checks all those boxes,” Elliott said. “It was easy for me to talk to coaches about Taeshawn,” he explained, which shows “he’s doing what he needs to be doing on the field and in the classroom.”
When Alston takes the field this fall for his final season as a Viper, he’ll be playing linebacker and EDGE. He likes both positions, so he’s happy to go in any direction his coaches decide.
The coaching staff at USC has said they’d like for him to get a little bigger, something that Alston has taken to heart. For the record, he’s listed now at 6-foot-4 and about 230 pounds.
Alston has a good idea about what USC will give him – a chance to play against top-level opponents in the SEC and a quality education. But what are the Gamecocks getting from him?
“They’re getting a great athlete, a great academic student,” Alston said. “I feel like they’re getting a monster, on the field and in the classroom.”
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