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A few weeks ago, USC coach Shane Beamer issued one of his commitment alerts, but that one was for the 2024 class. That alert went publicly unclaimed until Saturday night when QB Dante Reno (6-1 215) of Fiskdale, MA and the Loomis Chaffee School in Connecticut announced a commitment to the Gamecocks from his home and via CBS Sports HQ. Reno is the Gamecocks’ first commitment for the 2024 class, and he chose them over NC State, Purdue, Kentucky, Virginia and Wake Forest.
Beamer, quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield and area recruiter Pete Lembo combined to recruit Reno, whose father is the head coach at Yale. He made three visits to the school during the recruiting process, and those visits left him with no doubt that USC was the right place for him.
“Me and my family, we felt at home,” Reno said. “That’s probably one of the biggest reasons I chose South Carolina. The family atmosphere that we had, and the way that Coach Beamer, Coach Satterfield and Coach Lembo treated my whole family like family too. They’ve recruited me like that since the beginning. Throughout the whole time they’ve stuck by me. I’ve had calls to Coach Satterfield twice a week, Coach Beamer one-time a week and Coach Lembo one-time a week. They are recruiting me the hardest, but I feel like I can get developed the best there. It’s been a long time since they’ve been at the top, but when that place is rocking and that stadium is on, it’s going to be a pretty special place in the SEC.”
Reno added that after getting a good look at the football operation, the campus and the surrounding area, it was a no-brainer for him to give Beamer a commitment last month.
“I kind of just fell in love with the place,” Reno said. “It has everything you need from facilities to places where you’re going to live to the big city of Columbia. There’s nothing at South Carolina you don’t have. It’s just about the right fit and the right people in the program. I went down there that first time, and I was like, there’s no reason why I can’t accomplish all my goals I want to accomplish down here. After that we went home and talked and went back down there a second time in two weeks. My family and I we talked, and then we took a couple of months off from recruiting. Then I went back down there again, and it felt like home, so there was really no reason for me to wait.”
Reno is regarded nationally as one of the top quarterbacks in his class. Last season he passed for 250 yards and 27 touchdowns completing 66% of his passes. He loves the fact Satterfield has an NFL background and runs a pro-style offense. That’s exactly what he was looking for.
“My goal is to play for a long time in the NFL, and his offense can prepare me for that,” Reno said. “He’s going to prepare me with not just on the field stuff but in the film room too. The way they treat their meetings, it’s like an NFL meeting room. He coaches everyone in the meeting. He’s not just on the starter or the backup, he’s on everyone the whole meeting. And he’s just a really good guy and really good person. He’s a great fit me for me and my family and he did a great job with me and my brothers and sisters. He’s a great guy.”
Reno understands what his position is now related to the USC program. Of course, his primary focus the next two seasons will be to be as successful as he can with his high school team. But he’s also thinking about the future and how he hopes he can help Beamer continue to build a successful program.
“Win the team over by being a good teammate first, putting all of them before myself,” Reno said. “Playing my game, distributing the ball to the playmakers, not turn the ball over and biggest thing is going out and win. That’s the SEC, you’ve got to win. I think we can do that at Carolina. You need a quarterback, you need a line, and you need defense, and you’re going to win some games. That’s what we’re going to do with these next two recruiting classes. There’s probably three kids, Kam Pringle, Mazeo Bennett and Josiah Thompson, those are like my three targets right now and they are all South Carolina kids. Those are my guys right now for the ’24 class. In the ’23 class, there are a bunch of studs who are going to commit but they have not announced that they are going to commit too. It’s going to be a fun time.”
