50 days until South Carolina football kickoff, a look at number 50 Jatavius Shivers

South Carolina football is 50 days away from starting its 2024 season. For those counting at home, that's just 7 weeks and 1 day from toe meeting leather at Williams-Brice Stadium, officially beginning the fourth year of the Shane Beamer era in garnet and black.

#50 on this year's team is an intriguing young offensive lineman. While he likely won't see much time this season, Jatavius Shivers is a redshirt freshman offensive tackle with a really high upside. Listed at 6'7" and 320 pounds, Shivers is a Georgia native who has unnatural athleticism for a person his size.

If he can continue developing, he has a real chance to break into the starting lineup in Columbia one day, despite being lower rated by the recruiting industry in the class of 2023. Overall, Shivers is among the most physically impressive players on the roster, and with some improvement to his technique and some more work on his body, it will be hard to keep him off the field as he gets older.

For now, though, Shivers is going to be behind a lot of other players at tackle this season. Potential starters Tree Babalade and Cason Henry are guaranteed fixtures in the two-deep this season, and 5-star true freshman Josiah Thompson, 6th-year versatile lineman Jakai Moore, and transfer Aaryn Parks will be in the discussion, as well. Interestingly, only Babalade and Thompson are in their first or second year of college football. Shivers will join them and true freshmen Kam Pringle and Blake Franks in the battle for playing time at tackle in the future.

The Gamecocks' first game is on August 31st, and they will welcome the Old Dominion Monarchs to Columbia for a 4:15 PM ET matchup. The game will be broadcast on the SEC Network and will be streamed on the ESPN app.