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How QB recruits visiting USC are balancing summers filled with camps, 7-on-7 events

Raheim Jeter looks the part of a Power Five quarterback recruit.

He’s burly and tall, standing 6-foot-3 and looking every bit of a muscular 220 pounds. In the pocket, he can sling balls 40 yards downfield with the flick of a wrist or can take some off to find a receiver on a shorter, more precise wheel route.

But for as good as Jeter looks on film and in scrimmage settings, his summer has been spent auditioning for college coaches nationwide along with added reps and continuing to gel with his new teammates at Spartanburg High School, where he enrolled in January.

“It’s been fun just getting to travel the world, travel around and see different places,” he told The State. “Especially when I do stuff like this with my team. It’s a lot of fun.”

Over the past decade, quarterback recruiting has accelerated, while camps around the country offer prospects a chance to throw in front of college coaches weekly, if not daily.

Jeter — a three-star recruit and the No. 32 quarterback in the 2023 class per 247Sports — has traveled to Clemson, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Florida and Florida State for varying camps and visits in recent months. On Thursday, he was among the more prolific signal-callers at the 7-on-7 tournament hosted at South Carolina’s Jerri and Steve Spurrier Indoor Practice Facility.

Elite 2024 quarterback Adrian Posse, who doesn’t have a ranking yet due to his age, was also in attendance Thursday along with his team from Monsignor Pace High School located in Miami Gardens, Florida. Posse, like Jeter, has been all over the country for camps in recent weeks. FIU and Miami were easy trips from his family’s home. Treks to Florida, Ohio State, South Carolina and Notre Dame were further drives.

“It’s been a fun experience,” Posse said of his nationwide travels. “I’ve gotten to see a lot of new things, meet a lot of new coaches and (learn) a lot of new aspects of the game.”

With miles and miles of highways under their belts, Jeter and Posse’s varying sojourns offer a glimpse into the recent evolution of quarterback recruiting, its timeliness and how prospects go about finding exposure.

As of Thursday, each of 247Sports’ top 18 quarterback recruits in the class of 2022 and 21 of the top 22 are verbally committed somewhere. The 2023 class has yet to have its first of the top-flight quarterbacks in the group commit anywhere, but visits and offers are persistent.

Jeter and Posse have each received their share of interest despite being just a rising junior and a rising sophomore, respectively. Jeter’s offer sheet includes South Carolina, Virginia Tech, Georgia, Auburn and Memphis, among others. Posse also holds a Georgia offer to his name, in addition to Texas A&M, Miami, LSU, Florida, Ohio State, Southern Miss, FIU and Appalachian State.

South Carolina has also already landed its 2022 quarterback in four-star passer Braden Davis and is on a handful of prospects in the 2023 class, including consensus top-50 prospect Dylan Lonergan.

“Everything is amplified when you talk about quarterback recruiting,” Rivals national recruiting analyst Adam Friedman told The State earlier this spring. “Every aspect of the (quarterback) recruiting process is amplified. That’s why you see it go faster, because they’re the most important player on the field.”

On Thursday, Jeter and Posse led their respective 7-on-7 teams to appearances in the knock-out stages of the tournament hosted at USC. Each, too, had their moments of dynamism.

During the group stage of Thursday’s tournament, Jeter dropped a 40-yard strike over the shoulder of a chasing defensive back and into his receivers arms for a touchdown pass on a skinny post in the center of the end zone on the outdoor practice fields.

Posse also flashed an electric arm, zipping throws around the indoor facility in Columbia. During Monsignor Pace’s playoff loss to Byrnes High School on Thursday, the Florida native whipped a dime to the front left pylon, where his receiver raced under the ball and secured it for a touchdown.

“Really, it’s just all passes,” Jeter explained of how 7-on-7 camps have helped evolve his game. “So really it’s just a chance for me and my receivers to get on the same page before the season starts. It’s a great thing that we’ve had it this year since we didn’t last year.”

On Thursday, neither Jeter nor Posse left with any team hardware. But both headed out the doors at South Carolina’s indoor complex having added another stop on their nationwide tours.

With a handful of camps still on the agenda before heading home to South Florida, Posse quipped he’s just thankful his dad is with him to do the driving.

“God thank him,” he said through a wry smile. “I’m in the passenger seat just sleeping.”