South Carolina Football: Wide receiver Juice Wells to transfer

The transfer portal hasn’t officially opened yet, but South Carolina football fans have already seen their team involved in its fair share of transfer news.

The Gamecocks have dispensed offers to some grad transfer players (graduate students can enter the portal and transfer at any time), and a few players are expected to hit the portal when it opens next week.

Former 4-star linebacker/EDGE Donovan Westmoreland was the first domino to fall. Then, on Wednesday, after quarterback Spencer Rattler declared for the 2024 NFL, it was reported that two more QBs (former 4-stars Tanner Bailey and Colten Gauthier) would also exit the program.

Then, on Thursday morning, an unexpected hit came.

All-SEC wide receiver Juice Wells is expected to insert his name into the transfer portal and leave the South Carolina football program, according to reports from TheBigSpur.com’s JC Shurburtt.

No further details have been confirmed about the impending transfer.

Wells missed most of the 2023 season with a foot injury. Near the end of the year, Gamecock head coach Shane Beamer said repeatedly that Wells was ready to play from a physical standpoint but wasn’t ready to play mentally.

After Beamer’s comments, some fans assumed that Wells wasn’t coming back and was holding himself out for the NFL, something the star wideout denied with a post to his social media page. In the post, he also announced that he would return in 2024.

However, in hindsight, nowhere in Wells’ return message did he say that he would be back in Columbia.

As one of the Gamecocks’ highest-paid players in NIL money, USC fans are upset that their favorite program seemingly is struggling to keep some of its top talent.

Last offseason, significant Gamecock contributors like running back MarShawn Lloyd, defensive ends Jordan Burch and Gilber Edmond, and tight end Jaheim Bell all left the program. For at least two of those players, NIL dollars were a reported factor in their decision to transfer. It is unclear at this time if that is the case for Wells.

Wells will transfer as a graduate student but has up to two years of eligibility remaining.