Irishman who has never played American football commits to South Carolina

A 20-year-old Irishman who has never played American football committed Sunday to play at South Carolina as an offensive lineman. Neff Giwa, who is also Nigerian, has come a long way — from Tipperary — in a short amount of time. Just a few months after showing an interest in the sport, he was touring U.

S. college campuses, meeting coaches and collecting offers. It’s a lot to handle, even for someone who is 6 feet, 7 1/2 inches tall, weighs 295 pounds and has 37-inch-long arms and great foot speed.

Sometimes he asks himself: “Is this really happening to me? ” Incredibly, yes. “I knew that there’d be a journey there, but I could never have anticipated this,” Giwa, in an interview with The Associated Press , said of the whirlwind around his recruitment.

Giwa grew up in Cashel, a town in County Tipperary with a population under 5,000 (AP) Giwa, whose full first name is Oluwanifemi, selected the Gamecocks over offers from Miami, North Carolina, SMU, Tennessee and Texas. Giwa had two visits to Columbia and spent “ a lot of time ” with coach Shane Beamer. ‘Freakish numbers’ Giwa — pronounced with a hard G — heard about Brandon Collier through a friend familiar with the American’s track record of finding, training and placing international kids at U.