South Carolina Football: 100 days from kickoff, which Gamecocks must step up in 2024?
By Kevin Miller
South Carolina Football Players and Coaches Who Must Step Up in 2024:
The entire wide receiver unit
Sure, "the entire wide receiver unit" isn't one player, but the Gamecocks have got to get better production out of the position this season. Last year, Xavier Legette accounted for over 1/3 of the team's total receiving yardage and more than 1/2 of the team's receiving yards from the wide receiver position. Frankly, the rest of the receivers were inconsistent or flat-out underperforming for most of last season.
That cannot happen this fall.
The Gamecocks have a new wide receivers coach as former NFL receiver Mike Furrey will lead the unit in 2024, and they also will have a new-look position group. Nyck Harbor, Tyshawn Russell, and Luke Doty are the only receivers who return from last year's team with more than 2 catches on their ledger for the season, and they only combined for just 30 catches and 399 yards.
They also added five transfer portal wideouts (Jared Brown, Gage Larvadain, Ahmari-Huggins Bruce, Dalevon Campbell, and Vandrevius Jacobs) and two freshmen (Mazeo Bennett and Debron Gatling). Other scholarship players like Payton Mangrum, Elijah Crawford, and CJ Adams return at the position but didn't play much last year.
The 2024 version of the South Carolina football team will need several of these players to step up in a big way. Thanks to their size, Harbor and Campbell seem like the most likely candidates to play at the X-receiver spot, but several of the smaller pass-catchers on the team have experience playing out wide, too.
Larvadain, Brown, and Campbell are the most proven receivers on the roster, and AHB, Harbor, and Doty have shown they can be part of a rotation. Coach Furrey's unit will need several of these experienced players and, likely, one or two more unknowns to emerge in order to feel good about the wide receiver room's role in the passing game.