South Carolina Gamecocks freshman wide receiver Xavier Legette was no different than a lot of high school quarterbacks.

Legette was the best athlete at Mullins High School, which sits in a town of less than 5,000 people, so he played quarterback for the football team, even though it wasn’t really his natural position.

“He’s a natural wide receiver, but this year and last year we just didn’t have a quarterback, and we tried to make somebody else work last year and it just didn’t work out,” Mullins wide receivers coach Donald Brown told TheBigSpur in 2018.

“(Legette) never got to touch the ball, so our natural progression this year was just move him to quarterback, put the ball in his hands at all times and maybe help him get seen more. And, obviously, it’s worked out for him.”

Before Legette signed with South Carolina, he fielded offers from Tennessee, Tulane, East Carolina and Coastal Carolina. The 247Sports composite listed him as a 3-star and he was the No. 39-ranked athlete in the country. His 0.8685 rating was fourth-lowest among the prospects who signed with South Carolina in the 2019 class.

However, four days before Christmas, when he inked that letter of intent with the Gamecocks, Legette had zero stars, was unranked and didn’t have a rating. Eight months later, he’s been one of the most impressive freshmen performers during South Carolina’s preseason training camp.

“As far as right now,” senior quarterback Jake Bentley said on Friday, “He’s been the biggest – not surprise, because when he got here this summer, we saw he had flashes of being pretty good, but to come in and make plays and make plays on the ball, he’s looked really good.

“I think he’s going to help us for sure.”

As a senior at Mullins, Legette rushed for 1,826 yards and 19 touchdowns, to go along with 886 yards passing and 14 scores. As a sophomore, the last season he worked primarily at wide receiver, he caught 44 passes for 773 yards and eight touchdowns.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Dakereon Joyner mentioned Legette by name, when asked about the young wide receivers who’ve stood out during camp.

“Very fast guy, one of the fastest guys on the team,” Joyner said. “He has an eye for the ball, he can go attack the ball.”