South Carolina Football: Darius Rush embodies what it means to be a Gamecock

The 2023 NFL Scouting Combine was last week, and one of the biggest draft stock risers is South Carolina football’s Darius Rush. In fact, Rush has had a great eight months as the cornerback has gone from potentially undrafted to maybe a top-100 pick in April’s NFL Draft after an excellent final season, a strong showing at the 2023 Senior Bowl, and an impressive Combine.

Arguably the player who showed the most growth as a Gamecock over the last decade, Rush embodies his collegiate mascot perfectly.

Like a Fighting Gamecock, there’s no quit in him; buried on the depth chart for three years, Rush kept grinding until he saw the field. He’s a hard worker as evidenced by his gaining 25 pounds in college while still shaving .3 of a second off of his 40-yard dash time. And he’s a ruthless competitor who played hard every snap, whether he was playing across from a team’s best receiver or was covering punts on special teams.

Darius Rush was, is, and will always be a Gamecock. Now, he’s on his way to the land of professional football.

The NFL wasn’t always in the cards for Darius, though. Rush went to small CE Murray High School in smaller Kingstree, South Carolina where his love for competing led him to play five sports. The town just a little over an hour east of Columbia was not used to having an athlete like him, as the thin, 6’2″ Rush was utilized all over the field, even sometimes at quarterback.

He was relatively lightly recruited out of high school and was considered a low-to-mid-three-star wide receiver prospect. By some industry rankings, he was even ranked outside of the top-20 prospects in the state of South Carolina for the 2018 recruiting class and was #1051 nationally according to 247Sports.

Rush hadn’t yet shown any elite traits and played against lower levels of competition from other small high schools, so many who follow recruiting viewed him as a special teams player in college but not one who could possibly contribute to a winning team. He was counted out.

Will Muschamp’s staff saw potential in Rush, however, and they offered him a scholarship, his only one from a Power 5 program. A month later, the long and skinny athlete became the first 2018 commitment for his home state team.

After being on campus for a year, the redshirt freshman Rush officially moved to defensive back, and he took to his new position group well but didn’t see the field much. He was behind NFL talents Jaycee Horn and Israel Mukuamu at cornerback, and fellow 2023 draft hopeful Jammie Robinson was inside at nickel. There was nowhere for Rush to play, but he kept working. His loyalty to the program also shone through as the coaching staff that recruited him was replaced. In the age of the transfer portal, Rush showed he was no quitter.

Fast-forward to the summer of 2021. The skinny special teams contributor had added some weight and worked on his explosiveness. That offseason, Horn and Mukuamu had been drafted, and Robinson, Shilo Sanders, and John Dixon transferred to Florida State, Jackson State, and Penn State, respectively. Cam Smith was assumed to be a starter at one corner spot, but, all of a sudden, a formerly crowded cornerback room had an open spot.

Headed into Shane Beamer’s first year as the head coach of the South Carolina football program, Darius Rush, in his fourth year in garnet and black, finally was in a position to fight for a starting corner job. It soon became clear that the hard-working #28 had beaten out the competition and would start alongside Smith, but Rush was still doubted. Fans were concerned with how the secondary would play. Rush, however, was not worried.

The confident new starter had just one tackle against Eastern Illinois. A closer look at the tape shows that he had just one tackle because he was never targeted in the passing game. “Ok, but that was just Eastern Illinois,” some doubters remarked.

The following week, Rush did get targeted against East Carolina. After an early game trick play miscommunication, Rush was only thrown at one more time, and he pulled down his first career pick. A few weeks later, Rush and Smith shut down future 1st-round quarterback Will Levis.

The South Carolina cornerback duo operated a no-fly zone in 2021 as they led the SEC in the conference’s fewest passing yards allowed. Rush capped his impressive 2021 campaign with his performance in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl against North Carolina. In a game without his cornerback partner Smith, Rush was targeted three times, and he broke up all three passes, including one of the best pass breakups of the 2021 season.

2022 saw much of the same from Rush. Receivers could go nowhere without #28 all over them. He added to his game, as well. His tackling improved, and he became the Gamecocks’ best punt coverage player, as he logged several impressive tackles as a gunner and downed a handful of other Kai Kroeger kicks deep in enemy territory.

A true outside corner, Rush played almost every defensive snap of his career out wide on a receiver (about 1150 out of 1250 according to PFF). His game isn’t just limited to coverage, however, as he still managed to affect the game in other ways. He had 8 tackles in an important win against Texas A&M in 2022 (and jumped a route for an interception and 60-yard return),

and he even collected a sack against Florida in 2021.

As Rush traveled the long road from signing day afterthought to depth piece, from loveable underdog to useful player, and from scrappy contributor to dominant force, the fanbase latched onto him. He became a fan favorite that had Gamecocks everywhere trying to explain to the rest of the country how special he was.

As the South Carolina football season came to a close, Rush had solidified himself as a probable day-three selection in April’s NFL Draft. But he was invited to the 2023 Senior Bowl where he was selected by his peers as the Defensive Back Player of the Week during the week of practice and was timed as one of the fastest players at the event during practice. Because of this, he started moving up draft boards.

Then came the NFL Combine. Five Gamecocks were invited to the event, and all five performed well in some areas. Rush, however, posted the seventh-fastest time of any player in the 40-yard dash as he ran an official 4.36. He also measured in at 6’2″ with a wingspan of around 6’8″ and just under 200 pounds, a great size for an NFL corner. Combined with his speed, he has all the physical tools to be a really good player at the next level.

Mentally, Rush has what it takes, as well. A three-time SEC Academic Honor Roll member, he also plays with intelligence. He was rarely penalized in college and didn’t miss many tackles in the open field. The corner was known as a detail-oriented preparer, a trait that will serve him well moving forward.

In addition to his physical and mental tools, Rush displayed some other non-quantifiable attributes during his collegiate career that will play a role in where he will be selected in April. At the top of the list: he just knows how to get to the football.

One could continue to list a million different reasons why an NFL team would be fortunate to have Darius Rush fall to them in the draft. One thing is for sure, though: no matter what team or teams he plays with as a pro, South Carolina football fans are proud to say he will always be a Gamecock.