Stone Blanton Discusses Facing Homestate Team, Memories From Recruitment

South Carolina's Football team will be playing with some urgency this weekend against Mississippi State, but Stone Blanton will be feeling some different emotions.

This impending matchup against the Mississippi State Bulldogs is important for South Carolina's Football team as the Gamecocks look to avoid a 1-3 start before they head into Knoxville for a monumental night game against the Tennessee Volunteers. For sophomore linebacker Stone Blanton, however, this game will hold a deep meaning for him for other reasons, as the Mississippi native will square off against a team that, at one point a few years ago, looked to be his future college home.

"It's actually just a crazy moment just being able to prepare all week and play Mississippi State," Stone told the media on Tuesday afternoon. "I grew up a Mississippi State fan, was committed to them in baseball for a long time. You know, they were kinda just my childhood dream team, so it's really just a surreal moment to come here and be able to play them."

Around 20 or so family members and friends plan to visit Columbia to watch Blanton play against his dream school. Sticking with the relationship of this story, the head coach of the Bulldogs, Zach Arnett, knows Stone quite well because he was his primary recruiter at the time, serving as Mississippi State's defensive coordinator. When the then high school senior realized during the early signing period in December of 2021 that he would flip to South Carolina, as Blanton recalled, the conversations weren't easy.

"It was pretty hard to do 'cause I did really like that coaching staff. It was an extremely difficult decision with football and baseball cause baseball was a huge factor for Mississippi State," Stone explained. "I had a really good relationship with Coach [Chris] Lemonis and Coach [Zach] Arnett, and so that was a hard decision and really hard conversation to have, but they wished me luck and wanted the best for me."

It's a full circle moment for Blanton, who, as a kid, once dreamed of taking the field with the Mississippi State Bulldogs. In a way, while his life directed him on a different path, on Saturday night, he'll be fulfilling the dream that a younger Stone once held.

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