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David Bucey, a rising senior at Savannah Christian, is so versatile, everyone saves a lot of time by summing him up as “a football player.”

That applies not only to his skills on offense, defense and special teams, but also to his presence as a physical and cerebral talent. He makes plays all over the field. 

“What I tell (college coaches) is he is just a really good overall football player,” Raiders coach Baker Woodward said Tuesday. “He loves the game of football and it shows. He wants to be on the field the entire time.”

For Bucey’s senior season this fall, Woodward expects to see him lined up at various times at wide receiver, quarterback, tight end, linebacker, safety, long snapper, kick returner and punt returner.

“All the stuff he’s played in the past for us,” said the coach, who did indeed say quarterback.

Bucey, a starter on the varsity since his freshman season, also has played some wingback.

“My favorite is probably linebacker because you’re involved on every play there is,” Bucey, 17, said Tuesday. “You get to tackle, you hit people, there’s nothing like it. It’s a football position, if I could put it that way.”

Bucey will have a lot to think about as a student-athlete this fall, but one major decision has been made. On Monday evening, he announced on Twitter that he has verbally committed to play football in 2024 for the University of South Carolina.

He probably will focus on defensive back, but the 6-foot, 1/4-inch, 200-pounder could see himself as a nickel safety/hybrid linebacker playing the run and covering tight ends, running backs, wide receivers, anyone in his way.

Bucey had attended a Gamecocks home game in Columbia and took in the “unreal” atmosphere.

“That was only the beginning,” he recalled.

In early June, he attended a camp for skill position players at South Carolina and a few days later, on June 13, he got a scholarship offer.

“I did really well,” Bucey said. “I guess I moved up on the chart for the coaches. I think that’s what really did it.”

Woodward recalled that Bucey stood out to the Gamecocks coaches, perhaps more than they expected.

“When (Bucey) ended up going to South Carolina’s camp, Shane Beamer, the head coach, is like, ‘Am I missing something on this kid? He’s one of the best players at our camp.’ ”

Woodward responded that “No, he’s a really, really good football player. He’s one of our best football players. It’s a no-brainer to me.”

Last week, Savannah Christian had a squad including Bucey competing in the 7v7 tournament at South Carolina. Bucey stayed in town to take his official visit on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

“You meet pretty much everybody on the staff, see everything they have to offer from a football standpoint to academics to where you’re going to live,” Bucey said. “It’s everything you could think of.”

Bucey, who is considering studying environmental science, feels South Carolina is everything he needs, from the facilities to the size of the campus to that fanatical atmosphere at home games. He was all in, including on Beamer.

“He’s very personable,” Bucey said. “He’s got a good heart. He’s got a great demeanor. Everything he’s for is good. He’s a great person.”

Before Bucey made the announcement public on social media, he texted every coach who had made a scholarship offer so they would hear it from him first. 

He counted 20 offers, including his first NCAA Division I offer from Florida Atlantic to his first Power 5 conference school in West Virginia, as well as Georgia Southern, Georgia Tech, Washington State, Iowa State, Tulane, Toledo, James Madison and more. It is a varied group offering a lot of options.

“I just wanted to get it over with before my senior year so I’d know where I was going and be comfortable in that,” he said.

Bucey is a three-star linebacker prospect ranked in the 247 Sports Composite as the 1,334th player in the country for the Class of 2024, 121st among all linebackers and 136th overall in Georgia. 

As part of a talented Raiders squad, he will have a chance to improve on outstanding junior season when he made 100 tackles (48 solo), 18 tackles for loss, four sacks and five interceptions on defense, and 39 receptions for 747 yards on offense. He was the Region 3-3A Athlete of the Year.

He’s also very smart, Woodward said, in football and in school, where he has about a 3.5 grade-point average.

“One thing that kind of separates him from a lot of other kids these days is he loves the game of football,” Woodward said. “A lot of people play football for the attention and to get offers and the things that the game brings them. He just loves the game.

“That’s what’s refreshing about him. He just wants to play. He wants to play at a high level. He’ll get that chance now playing in the SEC.”