South Carolina Football: Under the radar players to watch as fall camp begins
By Kevin Miller
South Carolina Football’s most under the radar players to watch in fall camp:
The entire offensive line
Last season, the Gamecocks did not experience elite-level offensive line play, but they also were solid up front whenever they were not too confused by former offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield’s inflexible NFL system. Starters Eric Douglas (center) and Jovaughn Gwyn (guard) are in the NFL now, and long-term right tackle starter Dylan Wonnum had a nice career.
Carolina is replacing those three starters (four if one counts Jaylen Nichols who is lost for the season to a knee injury), but they also return a surprising amount of experience up front.
Jakai Moore, Nick Gargiulo, Vershon Lee, Trai Jones, and Tyshawn Wannamaker are set to start on the offensive line when the season begins against North Carolina on September 2nd. During the spring, those five and the now-injured Jaylen Nichols were named the “top-6” on the O-line by head coach Shane Beamer.
Moore, Lee, and Wannamaker have played a lot of football in garnet and black, and Gargiulo was the lone captain (and a multi-year starter) at Yale. Jones hasn’t played as much in his career as the other four, but even he has more than a little game action under his belt.
True freshman Markee Anderson, redshirt freshman Cason Henry, and transfers Ni Mansell, Jaxon Hughes, and Sidney Fugar appear to be set up for spots in the two-deep for new offensive line coach Lonnie Teasley. Seeing how this top-10 group of big uglies jell together and push each other to get better will be an important and unsung thing for fans to pay attention to this fall.