South Carolina Football: Gamecock pass rusher to hit the transfer portal

South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer and his staff are going to have to hit the transfer portal pretty hard this offseason. The roster has multiple holes on it that need immediate attention, and waiting on an incoming freshman recruit to develop into a starter won’t cut it in most situations.

After a 5-7 campaign in which both the offense and the defense finished in the bottom half of the country in yards, yards allowed, points, points allowed, and all efficiency stats, the Gamecocks could look to the portal at almost any position on the roster.

However, adding players via transfer is only one aspect of the reality of the transfer portal. Teams lose players, too.

On Monday, it was reported by Matt Zenitz of 247Sports that Donovan Westmoreland would be the first South Carolina football player to enter his name into the transfer portal database.

Westmoreland, a 4-star prospect from the class of 2022 was a linebacker/EDGE who didn’t see the field much for the Gamecocks. While he appeared in several games during his career, he never recorded a statistic for the South Carolina football team.

Having not played much in two years on campus, despite the Gamecocks’ struggles rushing the passer, it stands to reason that Westmoreland was not part of the future plans for Shane Beamer and his staff.

As a player, the Griffin, Georgia native is a plus-athlete as a pass rusher, but he was much too small to play EDGE full-time at just 6’1″ and 230 pounds. He started his career as a linebacker but moved to EDGE when linebacker didn’t work out for him.

The transfer portal officially opens on Monday, December 4th, but players are making it known that they are leaving their current schools so that prospective suitors can begin evaluating their film and mulling over whether or not to send an offer their way. Graduate transfers already can enter the portal and can be contacted by coaches from other schools.