Shaq Roland Leaves The Gamecocks

In a move that is certainly not shocking, but is still disappointing, apparently wide receiver Shaq Roland is not making the trip to Louisiana for the bowl game and is leaving the Gamecocks squad.  Outside of the Capital One bowl game last year in which Shaq had his only game over 100 yards receiving, most of his career has not lived up to the hype.  He arrived at South Carolina as the 4th South Carolina “Mr. Football” in a row to sign with the Gamecocks, and not only was he a Parade All-American and one of the top wide receivers in the nation, he was local, leading the Lexington Wildcats to an 11-1 season.  There was such hope to go with the hype, and people just seemed to really want him to succeed.

But that never really happened, and game after game, year after year, there was just hope, but little hype.

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Maybe it was hard to live up to all the attention, or the comparisons.  People wanted him to be the next Alshon Jeffrey or Ace Sanders.  They saw the size, they saw the speed, and of course they had seen him at Lexington.  But it just never really seemed to work.  He dropped passes – a lot of passes.  And not the middle of traffic, about to get hit dropped passes.  No, Shaq seemed to have a knack for dropping the middle of the hands, on the fly, wide open deep ball that would have been a touchdown passes.  But people still held out hope.

This year, though, when he missed the team flight to Kentucky and the Gamecocks ended up losing, the support for Shaq seemed to disappear.  And now this.  You hate to see this happen, especially with someone who clearly had so much potential.  We may never know what really went wrong or why.  But maybe Shaq leaving is for the best for both.  He seemed to be frustrated.  The coaches kept trying to give him chances that never really seemed to pan out.  Might just be best to move on instead of just constantly hoping things will change.

Good luck Shaq, we all wish you the best, whatever lies ahead for you.