During the opening drive of the Garnet and Black Spring Game, the South Carolina football team experienced something that all teams are trying to avoid during their spring scrimmages. Incumbent starting left tackle Jaylen Nichols suffered an injury to his knee. At the time, the injury seemed relatively serious as Nichols could not bear any weight on his leg and hat do have it put in a stabilizer. He was given crutches in order to walk, and he was in a tremendous amount of obvious pain.
Since then, there has been no official announcement regarding the injury. Most assumed that he had suffered a pretty significant injury and would miss most of, if not all of, the 2023 season.
On Tuesday, Nichols’ head coach spoke about what happened to his left tackle. Coach Shane Beamer called Nichols’ injury “pretty significant.” He acknowledged that Nichols would not be available at the beginning of the season in September but did not go as far as to say he would be out the entire year. The big offensive lineman is a redshirt senior, but he could theoretically recover an extra year of eligibility through a medical redshirt if he were to miss all but four games this fall.
Versatile offensive lineman Jakai Moore is the early favorite to play left tackle in Nichols’ absence. Moore has played the position some in the past, and he was part of Beamer’s “top-6” offensive linemen from the spring. The top-6 were Nichols, Moore, Nick Gargiulo, Vershon Lee, Trai Jones, and Tyshawn Wannamaker. Freshman guard Markee Anderson slid out to tackle for part of the spring game, and Beamer has spoken highly of Anderson, as well as Cason Henry, Ryan Brubaker, and Grayson Mains. All four players could play tackle if needed.
The Gamecocks could potentially be in the market for a transfer portal offensive lineman to fill the void left by Nichols’ absence. Any transfer would have to be already in the transfer portal or be a graduate student as the transfer portal’s spring window is closed.
It is unclear as of now what the Carolina coaching has planned for the offensive line, but they have plenty of options from which to choose. Things will certainly become more apparent the closer the calendar gets to the start of the season.