Internet sensation Baby Gronk shares his reaction as South Carolina signee Eli Ellis shares glimpses from first practice

The South Carolina Gamecocks are heading into the 2025-26 season with a new signee, Eli Ellis. The Gamecocks have struggled in recent years, only making one appearance in the NCAA Tournament since their Final Four appearance in 2017. Fortunately for coach Lamont Paris, the Gamecocks have several recruits signed for next season, including Ellis.

Ellis is the top signee in the 2025 recruiting class for the South Carolina Gamecocks, according to On3. On Tuesday, the 6-foot-1 shooting guard posted a few clips from his first practice with the Gamecocks on Instagram.

"Smooth first day," Ellis wrote.

After he posted, internet sensation Madden San Miguel, aka "Baby Gronk," commented with a goat emoji.

Image via the comments of Eli Ellis' Instagram post.

Baby Gronk has received plenty of attention on social media because of his size and athleticism at a young age, similar to former NFL star Rob Gronkowski. He has gained a significant following, including 689,000 followers on Instagram and 502,000 subscribers on YouTube.

While he has generated plenty of social media attention, it is unclear whether he will compete at the highest level in football. He is not slated to start his college football career until 2031, so it is impossible to accurately judge if he will be a high-level recruit yet.

Eli Ellis joins the South Carolina Gamecocks as part of their 2025 recruiting class

The South Carolina Gamecocks have five incoming freshmen who are part of the 2025 recruiting class. Eli Ellis is the highest-ranked player in that group. He is the only four-star recruit, with the other three being rated as three stars.

According to 247Sports, Ellis is the No. 69-ranked player in his class and the No. 9-ranked point guard. He is joined in his freshman class by power forward EJ Walker, small forward Abu Yarmah, power forward Hayden Assemian and small forward Grant Polk.

Coach Lamont Paris also made several changes to the team via the transfer portal. According to 247Sports, six players were brought in via the portal, including Nordin Kapic, Mike Sharavjamts, Elijah Strong, Kobe Knox, Christ Essandoko and Meechie Johnson Jr.

Fans will be watching eagerly to see if Paris can bring his team together for next season with so much turnover. The Gamecocks will be trying to bounce back after a disastrous 2024-25 campaign. They only had two conference wins this past season.