Gamecocks coaches praise former South Pointe star Gilmore

but off the field, he's just a family guy deep down

By Joseph Person - The (Columbia) State

Signs of a football-centric family greet visitors as soon as they pull into the driveway of the two-story, brick home where Stephon Gilmore grew up.

There is a South Carolina flag out front, a football in the yard and a welcoming committee comprised of three of Gilmore's five younger siblings.

Scarlett, 9, and 7-year-old Savannah emerge from the house still wearing temporary Gamecock tattoos on their cheeks from USC's game against Florida two days earlier. Steven Jr., 10, is dressed for his Pee Wee football practice, with one of his brother's garnet-and-black Under Armour shirts stretched over his pint-sized shoulder pads.

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Steven informs a visitor that he wears No. 5 and plays cornerback, just like his brother down the road in Columbia.

Family members say little Steven could be “the next one” in the family to play major college football.

The first one has set the bar pretty high.

A year ago, Gilmore was the starting quarterback for South Pointe's state championship team. The 6-foot-1, 188-pound Gilmore ran and passed his way to the state's Mr. Football award, a spot on the Parade All-American team and an invitation, along with South Pointe and USC teammate DeVonte Holloman, to the Under Armour All-American game.

He chose USC over Alabama in large part because of the seven people he has tattooed in a family tree on his left arm — parents Stevie and Linda, and the five siblings who think their big brother hung the moon.

“I didn't want to go too far. I wanted to stay close to my family,” Gilmore said this week. “I thought I could stay in-state instead of going to another state and contribute like I'm doing now.”

Gilmore's contributions include 11 starts at boundary cornerback and a team-high eight pass breakups. Gilmore is fifth on the team with 48 tackles, and has averaged 11.7 yards as a punt returner, which would rank fifth in the SEC if he had enough chances.

All this from a 19-year-old who never played corner full-time before enrolling at USC in January.

“It's hard to project a freshman to play the way Stephon has played this season,” said USC defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward, Gilmore's position coach. “Has he made some mistakes? Sure he has. But for a guy to play in the SEC coming out of high school as a true freshman, I think he's done a great job.”

Success in every sport

South Pointe coach Bobby Carroll remembers first seeing Gilmore, then about 8 years old, at a football camp at Northwestern High, where Carroll spent 20 years as defensive coordinator. Carroll said Gilmore's athleticism and competitiveness were evident then, but he did not foresee Gilmore becoming a Division I football player.

In fact, football was just one of several sports in which Gilmore excelled. He threw several no-hitters one summer for his Rock Hill Little League team despite having no formal pitching instruction, and was all-state in basketball as a high school junior.

“Every team he's been on, he dominated,” Linda Gilmore said.

The next time Carroll saw Gilmore, he was starring for his middle-school team at Saluda Trail, which was zoned for Rock Hill's new high school, South Pointe, which opened in 2005.

South Pointe did not field a varsity team that first season, but Carroll caught a glimpse of the future when Gilmore bolted for a touchdown on the first snap of a season-opening freshman game against Rock Hill.

“The very first play of this school's history, he runs the outside veer and goes 65 yards untouched,” Carroll said. “And I go, ‘Holy cow, this has got potential.'”

The Stallions took their lumps the following year in their first varsity season, going 3-8 with a team that ran the flexbone option and featured no seniors. Carroll installed a spread offense before the 2007 season, when Gilmore led South Pointe to the second round of the playoffs and landed on the recruiting lists of nearly every school in the country — “from Maine to Miami,” Carroll said.