The scouting report on South Carolina commit Jordan Burch, from those close to him
Alex Huntley would know as well as anyone what kind of player Jordan Burch is.
The two played together along the defensive line the past three seasons at Hammond School, shared a locker room and visited some of the same colleges during the recruiting process.
The two also are committed to play at South Carolina. Burch made his anticipated announcement on Wednesday on ESPNU as he pulled out the black Gamecock hat in front of a packed gymnasium at Hammond.
Burch did not sign a National Letter of Intent on Wednesday but it was already known that he wasn’t going to enroll at his school of choice in January. The early signing period wraps up Friday. If Burch doesn’t sign by then, he would have to wait until the traditional signing period, which starts Feb. 5, to sign his letter.
“Great person, great teammate, leader on and off the field,” Huntley said. “Nothing really but good things to say about him.”
On the field, Huntley said Burch’s best characteristics are being “athletic, vicious and a student of the game.”
“Somebody who’s willing to learn, willing to do it and a competitor,” Huntley said of Burch. “That’s something that is his biggest thing that I’m really happy about. He’s going to compete. We’re going to compete with each other, against each other and that’s just going to make us better players.”
There isn’t much the 6-foot-5, 275 pound Burch can’t do on the football field, Hammond coach Erik Kimrey said. This year, Burch ran for, caught and threw touchdown passes along with leading the Skyhawks in sacks for a second straight season.
“He is extremely athletic. He can take on tight ends and also run down quarterbacks,” Kimrey said. “You are getting an extremely athlete that could do a lot. He could play tight end on the next level if needed, although his future is at defensive end.”
Kimrey thinks Burch is only beginning to touch his football potential. Burch spent most of his summers playing AAU basketball and has been a three-year starter on the Skyhawk basketball team.
“He is just now coming into his body,” Kimrey said. “He has been playing basketball his whole life. He is getting in the weight room more now. His ceiling is extraordinarily high.”
Burch said in the interview with ESPNU that he compares his style between former Carolina Panthers defensive end Julius Pepper and Chicago Bears linebacker Khlail Mack. 247Sports’ Charles Power compares Burch to San Diego defensive end Joey Bosa, while 247Sports’ Steve Wiltfong compares him to Jeffrey Simmons, who played at Mississippi State and is now with the Tennessee Titans.
Hammond defensive line coach Jay Frye added another comparison when he said Burch reminds him on former Gamecock and current Seattle Seahawks defensive end Jadeveon Clowney.
“The way he can get off the football and the pad level he uses reminds me a lot of Clowney,” said Frye, who played at South Carolina and was the head coach at Richland Northeast. “He’s got to get in weight room and get stronger. But he’s got good hands, great feet and great pad level. That is the most impressive thing about him.”
This story was originally published December 19, 2019 at 2:07 PM with the headline "The scouting report on South Carolina commit Jordan Burch, from those close to him."
