South Carolina Football: 10 things to look for during Saturday’s spring game
By Kevin Miller
No. 4: South Carolina Football Is Thin at Defensive End and Inexperienced Players Are Needed to Step Up
The transfer portal claimed three different defensive end/EDGE players from the 2022 South Carolina football roster. Two of the three (Jordan Burch and Gilber Edmond) started at least 10 games last season, so the position will look drastically different in 2023. Jordan Strachan was a starter at the beginning of last year but tore his ACL in week 2 and is not expected to play in the spring game. True freshman 4-star end Monteque Rhames is indefinitely suspended for a gun charge, and defensive tackle Tonka Hemingway (who sometimes swings outside) is out with an injury.
Every player who sees time at defensive end in the spring game will be inexperienced. Tyreek Johnson is an older player who has not played much to this point of his career, and Terrell Dawkins is a talented transfer who missed most of his first season in Columbia in street clothes with injury. Desmond Umeozulu was one of the highest-rated recruits of the 2023 recruiting class and will likely see lots of snaps on Saturday. Transfer Jaron Willis and youngsters Bryant Thomas, Jr. and Donovan Westmoreland are undersized players who may see some snaps at EDGE situationally.
All of these players will play in the spring game, and Carolina fans are eager to see which ones earn their way onto the field. It will also be interesting to see how willing Defensive Coordinator Clayton White, Defensive Line Coach Jimmy Lindsey, and Outside Linebackers/Defensive Ends Coach Sterling Lucas will be to move some of their more athletic tackles to EDGE when the team needs. Hemingway, TJ Sanders, and transfer Elijah Davis are all capable of doing this.