Irish rugby player who sparked college football recruiting frenzy committing to South Carolina

Almost two weeks ago, Brandon Collier, who runs Germany-based Premier Prospects International (PPI), posted a three-second video of an offensive line prospect no one in the college football world had ever heard of, sparking a recruiting frenzy among college coaches. That 20-year-old offensive tackle, Neff Giwa, will sign on Sunday with South Carolina, Collier told The Athletic.

Even though the 6-foot-7 1/2, 295-pound Giwa, a rugby player from Ireland with 37-inch arms, has never played a down of American football, he received scholarship offers from, among others, Miami, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and SMU, after those schools marveled at his frame and athleticism displayed in the clips Collier posted.

Giwa, who will join the Gamecocks for the 2026 season, plans to arrive at South Carolina in May. Giwa visited South Carolina earlier this month as one of several campus visits with Collier.

The young lineman was impressed with how Gamecocks offensive line coach Randy Clements had developed German lineman and NFL second-round pick Sebastian Vollmer (while Clements was at Houston) and former hockey player and first-rounder Danny Watkins, a Canadian he coached while at Baylor.

Over the past decade, Collier, a former defensive tackle at UMass now based in Germany, has helped place approximately 100 international athletes at major college football programs. Eight of those players started in the SEC last year. But he said he had never seen a recruiting whirlwind like he experienced with Giwa the past two weeks, set off by a three-second video of Giwa pass blocking in a one-on-one drill with a defensive end that Collier posted March 16 at 5:44 p.m. Within minutes, coaches from Miami, SMU, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and Texas Tech wrote to Collier asking about Giwa.

“Mario Cristobal started blowing me up about him,” Collier told The Athletic last week. “‘We gotta get him to Miami!’”

In March, Collier brought Giwa and nine other European prospects to the U.S. Their first stop was Ohio State and then Kentucky. Giwa didn’t receive much interest from either. From there, the group, traveling in a sprinter van, drove 12 hours to Toronto to conduct a workout with another prospect. That’s where Collier filmed clips of Giwa in one-on-one pass-blocking drills against defensive line recruits, which is where he got the three-second clip he posted that got Cristobal to offer Giwa a scholarship and had other college coaches scrambling to get him to their campuses.

They visited Michigan and Michigan State and then went to Clemson, South Carolina and Tennessee. Both South Carolina and Tennessee offered. Before flying to Miami, they had stops planned at Ole Miss and Georgia. But Collier and Giwa headed back to South Carolina to spend more time with the Gamecocks, where the Irish O-lineman really felt comfortable. Justin Okoronkwo, the Gamecocks’ leading tackler who has blossomed over the years, is from Munich and another Collier protégé. Collier and Giwa flew to Miami Monday night to check out Miami, and also had interest from Texas. But he flew home to Ireland from Florida and decided that he wanted to sign with the Gamecocks after a chaotic recruiting process.

“It’s been crazy, man. A crazy experience,” Giwa told The Athletic last week. “I didn’t understand the network of how these coaches operate. I get tagged in the post. Then, I saw these likes and comments. It’s just surreal. I’ve got these coaches from Oklahoma and Texas A&M now messaging me. A month ago, I didn’t exist in the world of American football, and now I do. It’s a testament to the power of social media and the power of Brandon Collier.”