South Carolina football fans found some joy this weekend when their Gamecocks beat Vanderbilt 47-6 in the most lopsided victory in the history of the SEC rivalry. Both the offense and the defense played well, and at times, each unit was dominant against the Commodores.
After the game, as he often does, head coach Shane Beamer gave out some game balls for some of the team’s top performers. One game ball that was conspicuously missing was one for Xavier Legette.
Legette had over 100 yards receiving for the sixth time this season (good for the 2nd-most 100-yard performances in a single season in South Carolina football history), and he eclipsed the 1000-yard mark on the year, becoming just the fifth Gamecock ever to accomplish that feat.
However, Legette did not get a game ball.
He also didn’t get one last week after the Gamecocks beat the “other Gamecocks” of Jacksonville State. In that game, Legette went off for 217 yards (the 2nd-highest total in program history) and 2 touchdowns.
No, Shane Beamer doesn’t have anything against Xavier Legette. Both of these were simple oversights. In fact, when John Whittle of TheBigSpur.com jokingly pointed this out to Beamer after the Vanderbilt win, the Gamecock headman felt badly and made it clear he planned to amend the issue.
It didn’t take long for him to do so.
On Sunday, a video came out from the South Carolina football program in which Beamer, in front of the team during a meeting, presented Legette with his well-earned game ball.
You knew @CoachSBeamer would make it happen 🤙
— Gamecock Football (@GamecockFB) November 12, 2023
Congrats, @XavierLegette! pic.twitter.com/0yxZjpr9eB
With two more regular season games remaining against Kentucky and Clemson (both at home at Williams-Brice Stadium) and a possible bowl game, Legette seems to be in a solid position to move on up the receiving yardage leaderboard.
He is currently 5th in single-season receiving history among all Gamecocks, only behind Alshon Jeffery, Sidney Rice, Pharoh Cooper, and Sterling Sharpe. He is 13 yards behind Sharpe, 43 yards behind Cooper, and 150 behind Rice. All of those numbers are within reasonable reach even without a bowl.
It would take a little more (424 yards to be exact) to reach Jeffery’s total from his record-breaking 2010 season. It is important to note, though, that Jeffery played 14 games that year as the Gamecocks played in the SEC Championship Game and a bowl game. Legette’s yards-per-game average is actually slightly better than Jeffery’s (about 108 yards for Jeffery and about 109 yards for Legette).
#17 will have his next opportunity to rewrite the South Carolina football record books next Saturday at 7:30 when the Gamecocks welcome the Kentucky Wildcats to Columbia.