One of North Carolina’s top-ranked 2027 football prospects is headed South of the Border and into the SEC. Five-star cornerback Joshua Dobson announced Wednesday he has committed to South Carolina, giving coach Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks the highest-rated commitment in their 2027 recruiting class.
The 6-foot-1, 185-pound defensive back transferred to Hough High School in Cornelius after spending the past three seasons at Catawba Ridge in Fort Mill, S.C. He will play his senior season for the defending NCHSAA 8A state champions before returning to South Carolina to begin his college career.
Dobson chose the Gamecocks over a finalist group that included Auburn, Michigan and Texas A&M. He reported more than 30 scholarship offers during his recruitment, including in-state offers from Duke, East Carolina, NC State and North Carolina. LSU also made a strong push this past spring.
BREAKING: Five-Star CB Joshua Dobson has Committed to South Carolina, he tells me for @Rivals
The 6’1 185 CB chose the Gamecocks over Texas A&M and Michigan
He’s ranked as the No. 6 Recruit in the 2027 Rivals300
“All glory to God Gamecocks let’s go”https://t.co/mkYg8P5GBt pic.twitter.com/HcytyzJXZJ — Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) July 1, 2026
Rivals ranks Dobson as the No. 1 prospect in North Carolina and the No. 6 overall player nationally in its Rivals 300. The 247Sports Composite also considers him one of the nation’s elite recruits, rating him as a five-star prospect and the No. 1 player in North Carolina. Individually, 247Sports ranks Dobson as a four-star recruit, the No. 5 player in North Carolina and the nation’s No. 8 cornerback.
“South Carolina has been recruiting me since the eighth grade, so I know everything there is to know about them,” Dobson told 247Sports. “It’s like home.”
Dobson made his announcement during a ceremony at Hough High School on Wednesday. The internet and social media immediately lit up with the news. It was considered something of a coup that South Carolina landed him.
A standout on both defense and special teams during his prep career, Dobson totaled 48 tackles, 10 pass breakups and three interceptions as a sophomore in 2024 while also returning three kickoffs for touchdowns during his high school career. He is also a two-time state qualifier in the 400 meters.
247Sports scouting director Andrew Ivins describes Dobson as an athletic defensive back who “has tested in the upper percentile” and “turned heads in a camp setting with his quick feet and smooth transitions,” projecting him as a multi-year Power Four starter capable of playing on the perimeter.
Dobson becomes the second North Carolina player to commit to South Carolina’s 2027 class, joining defensive lineman John Archer of Seventy-First High School in Fayetteville (also a top-10 prospect in the state). He is also the sixth Hough High School player to announce a Division I commitment in the Class of 2027.
Dobson’s pledge to South Carolina football leaves just one player from 247Sports’ top 10 players from North Carolina as uncommitted: Dobson’s Hough teammate, Davion Jones, a safety. Jones is considered a South Carolina lean, per 247Sports, so Beamer might not be done in our state.
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