South Carolina Football: Record-setting kicker leaving via the transfer portal

South Carolina football fans haven’t had the greatest final day of November. Early this morning, it was reported that Juice Wells would be entering the transfer portal (something that seems to be fully confirmed by his social media activity), and rumors about other player defections have been running wild ever since that news broke.

Shortly after lunch, reports surfaced that a Gamecock record-holder would be joining Wells in the transfer portal.

Kicker Mitcher Jeter, according to reports from GamecockCentral’s Mike Uva and TheBigSpur’s John Whittle, will enter the transfer portal.

Jeter was 23/25 on career field goal attempts, good for the best kicking percentage of any kicker in the history of South Carolina football. Jeter has another year of eligibility at his new school.

South Carolina football fans were hoping that a disappointing 2023 season would be forgotten with a good offseason. A couple of coaching staff changes and some impactful transfer portal additions would go a long way in that pursuit.

So far, the early stages of the offseason after head coach Shane Beamer’s third year at the helm of the Gamecock football program has not gone well.

After the loss to the rival Clemson Tigers, Beamer made an assertion that the program is as strong as it has ever been. Since those comments, multiple important Gamecocks seemingly have decided to leave the program (with more defections rumored to be coming), and no coaching staff changes have been made.

This is not to say that the offseason couldn’t shift in a more positive direction. If the Carolina coaching staff can stop the transfer portal bleeding and pick up a couple of impactful players at positions of need, and if Beamer can find a couple of upgrades to his staff, things could work out just fine for the Gamecocks.

However, as of now, South Carolina football fans aren’t happy with the way things have gone in week 1 of the offseason.