South Carolina football fans sat through a painful offensive performance on Saturday when the Gamecocks lost to the rival Clemson Tigers 16-7 at Williams-Brice Stadium. The loss ended a disappointing season and kept USC out of a bowl game.
As other games did this season, the loss to Clemson showed some deficiencies within the coaching staff and the roster for the Gamecocks.
Head coach Shane Beamer will have some decisions to make regarding his coaching staff this offseason, but regardless of which coaches stay or go, the South Carolina football program will need an upgrade in personnel, as well.
In the modern world of college football, the transfer portal has become a huge part of retooling a roster. The portal is opening, and there are sure to be several Gamecocks who leave Columbia and several more players who join the team from different programs.
It doesn’t do much good to speculate about which players might exit the program this offseason (that can be addressed as it happens), but there are several positions on the roster that appear to be prime candidates to get some outside help from the transfer portal.
South Carolina Football Transfer Portal Needs:
Wide Receiver
South Carolina football had a legitimate All-American candidate at wide receiver this season as Xavier Legette caught over 1250 yards worth of passes on the year. He ranked inside the top-10 nationally in yards and has a great chance to be taken in the first two rounds of the 2024 NFL Draft.
However, even with Legette’s emergence this season, the wide receiver group was a disappointment in 2023. Juice Wells missed most of the year with an injured foot (though, he says he’s coming back in 2024), Ahmarean Brown was in and out of the lineup with a hamstring issue, and no other receiver could provide any consistent production, including 5-star Nyck Harbor.
With Legette and Brown out of eligibility, it is unclear if Carolina has any wide receiver depth on the roster to go behind Juice Wells next fall. Harbor is still new to the wide receiver position, and he combined with O’Mega Blake, Luke Doty, and Tyshawn Russell to log only 565 yards as a group.
Some young talents (like Harbor, Blake, Russell, Landon Samson, and Elijah Caldwell) have the coaching staff intrigued about what they can become in the future, and incoming freshman Mazeo Bennett could be pressed into early duty next season, as well.
The receiving corps will have significantly more questions than answers entering next fall without adding some players through the transfer portal.
The Gamecocks desperately need to add a veteran player (or two) to wide receivers coach Justin Stepp’s room for next season. If Juice Wells can be back to his old self, and a young receiver or two can be consistent performers, a veteran transfer could be the missing piece the group needs to have a better showing in year 4 of the Shane Beamer era.
South Carolina Football Transfer Portal Needs:
Cornerback
There’s no way around it: Clayton White’s defense, as a whole, was bad this season. The end of the year (against Vanderbilt, Kentucky, and Clemson) was much better, and fans are hopeful that the positive results will continue next season.
As part of the struggles, the South Carolina secondary underperformed this fall. Cornerback Marcellas Dial had a decent year in man coverage, and fellow starter O’Donnell Fortune had an up-and-down year. The safeties really struggled in coverage, but much of that was on coaching as they were asked to play man coverage far too often.
Dial is out of eligibility barring an unforeseen additional year being granted by the NCAA, leaving a starting spot open across from Fortune.
Judge Collier was the first corner off the bench most of the season and started twice while Fortune was suspended. Emory Floyd has played a fair amount, as well, and fellow youngster KaJuan Banks has played all over the secondary. 4-star true freshman Vicari Swain and incoming freshmen Braydon Lee and Jalewis Solomon could factor into that job before all is said and done.
Clearly, the Gamecocks lack experience at the position moving forward. Over the past two seasons, South Carolina football has lost three corners who got the majority of the snaps in 2022 and their #1 man coverage option in 2023. Adding a potential starter at the position could be huge for the Carolina defense next season.
South Carolina Football Transfer Portal Needs:
Offensive Line
Most South Carolina football fans know that the Gamecocks are bringing in one of the best offensive line recruiting classes in the country in the ’24 cycle. Offensive line coach Lonnie Teasley also helped sign one of the top classes in the 2023 class, as well.
Those players will all be freshmen and sophomores next season, and as was demonstrated by the line’s struggles this season with young players on the field, experience could be beneficial to a Gamecock offense that struggled to run the ball and protect quarterback Spencer Rattler this year.
USC has a lot of scholarship offensive linemen on the roster, but there are not many who have shown the ability to play consistently well in the SEC. It would be unsurprising to see several offensive linemen leave the program through the portal, but it seems like a virtual guarantee that the team will add a veteran transfer.
There are multiple veterans on the roster who have played a lot of football at the University of South Carolina. The versatile Vershon Lee likely will start somewhere next year, Jaylen Nichols and Cason Henry hope to get healthy after knee injuries, Jakai Moore and Tyshawn Wannamaker have experience at guard and tackle, and Trai Jones has played all three interior spots.
Incoming freshmen Josiah Thompson, Kam Pringle, and Blake Franks have the chance to be really good at the college level, and current freshmen Tree Babalade, Tro Baugh, Jatavius Shivers, and Markee Anderson do, as well.
But between the veterans’ struggles and the young players needing more seasoning, attacking the transfer portal could be the answer to the widely-asked question of “What can the Gamecocks do to improve this horrible offensive line?”
South Carolina Football Transfer Portal Needs:
Running Back
South Carolina football nailed at least one transfer portal addition last offseason when they added former Newberry running back Mario Anderson. Anderson had over 850 yards of offense in 9 starts and provided a modicum of life to a running game that was dead without him.
The big year for #24 could lead to him taking his chances in the NFL this spring. He has received some mild NFL Draft buzz lately, so he has a decision to make regarding his future.
If Anderson leaves, the Gamecocks absolutely will need to bring in a transfer portal running back for next year. Current freshman Djay Braswell, rising senior scatback Juju McDowell, and incoming freshman Matthew Fuller would be the only scholarship backs on the roster if Anderson left and USC doesn’t add another freshman in the 2024 recruiting class (they are in on 4-star Daniel Hill).
If Anderson stays and the Gamecocks pick up a commitment from Hill, Carolina probably could get away without adding a transfer. However, if the Gamecocks lose Anderson, they won’t have any experienced every-down back on the roster. If USC keeps Anderson but only adds one freshman, another veteran back transfer portal addition would help, too.
As of now, there has been solid evidence either way about Mario Anderson’s NFL decision-making, but South Carolina football fans will be anxiously awaiting his announcement this winter and, subsequently, any transfer portal rumors that may surface about the Gamecocks’ pursuit of a replacement back.
South Carolina Football Transfer Portal Needs:
EDGE/Defensive End
This one comes with qualifiers.
South Carolina’s defense switched to a 3-3-5 as their primary defensive set at the end of this season, and the results were much better. In a 3-3-5, teams play bigger defensive ends and typically will rush a linebacker or two in pursuit of the quarterback. The linebackers did a pretty good job of affecting the passing game this season both in the A-gap and in wide-9s.
They still use the 4-2-5 at times (and it was the primary look for defensive coordinator Clayton White before the end of this year), and the defensive ends are a little different.
In the 3-3-5, the Gamecocks would usually have at least one (sometimes two) bigger players at defensive end like athletic defensive tackles Tonka Hemingway or TJ Sanders unless they were in a “rabbits” pass rush package. In the 4-2-5, there is usually at least one (sometimes two) smaller pass-rush types at defensive end like Jordan Strachan and Bryan Thomas.
With a poor effort rushing the passer this season, South Carolina will need to add some players who can get after the quarterback for next fall. 5-star incoming freshman Dylan Stewart and fellow class of 2024 hybrid LB/EDGE players Wendell Gregory and Fred Johnson will try to help fix the issue, but veterans Jordan Strachan and Tyreek Johnson will both be gone.
To avoid putting too much on Stewart and company during their freshmen campaigns, the Gamecocks could use an instant-impact addition coming off the edge. Assuming that the Gamecocks stick with the 3-3-5, another pass-rushing linebacker probably isn’t the direction USC will go, but a big, athletic defensive end to rotate with Hemingway and Sanders is needed.
It is worth noting that Carolina already has Elijah Davis who fits that archetype, though he didn’t see a ton of action in 2023. Talented returners Desmond Umeozulu and Bryan Thomas are built for the rabbits package, and JT Geer is a physical clone of the graduating Strachan.
If all of those players step up, and the Gamecocks hold on to Hemingway and Sanders (both of whom have had mild NFL Draft talk surrounding them), there is no need for Shane Beamer’s squad to add another defensive end. However, assuming those players will emerge is a gamble, and the staff may try to hedge their bet a bit by scouring the transfer portal.