Stephon Gilmore's shocking admission on college recruitment

USA Today

a day ago

New England Patriots legend Stephon Gilmore never played a snap on defense until his first year of college football at the University of South Carolina.
Gilmore played at the quarterback position throughout high school, but when he had an opportunity to play in the defensive backfield at camps, he would shut everybody down. Perhaps it was fate's way of letting him know that he was playing in the wrong position.
That didn't stop Steve Spurrier, who was the head coach at South Carolina at the time, from trying to recruit him to play on the offensive side of the ball.
"It was crazy because I played quarterback in high school. I didn't play no defense at all," Gilmore said on The Money Down Podcast. "I was a guy recruited as an athlete. Spurrier recruited me. He was like, 'Man, you should play receiver.' I'm like, 'Man, I don't want to play receiver.' My dad was like, 'Man, you're a corner. Just play corner.' Because I used to go to camps and shut everybody down, and I had never played corner."
Spurrier never gave up on the dream of Gilmore playing on offense and even dialed up a few plays for him. However, once Gilmore started playing cornerback at the collegiate level, he never looked back.
He earned the starting job right out of the gate and developed into one of the best players in the country. That ultimately led to an incredibly successful NFL career with a Super Bowl win, Defensive MVP, two First-Team All-Pro nods and five Pro Bowls.
It's safe to say the move to corner was the right choice.
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