South Carolina Football: Could former Gamecock return to Columbia after re-entering transfer portal?

South Carolina football fans saw fewer players leave the program after the 2022 season in the transfer portal than they have since the 2023 season ended. Unfortunately for this past season's results, though, the Gamecocks lost a lot of contributors at two positions after the completion of year 2 of the Shane Beamer era.

Running back got hit hard as former 5-star MarShawn Lloyd and high-upside backup Rashad Amos left for Southern Cal and Miami (OH), respectively. Both players had big seasons at their new schools.

Defensive end also underwent major attrition. Former 5-star Jordan Burch, part-time starter Gilber Edmond, and depth player Hot Rod Fitten all left the South Carolina football program, as well.

Running back and defensive end went on to be two of the biggest issues for the Gamecocks in 2023.

On, Wednesday, an interesting development surfaced about one of the players who defected.

247Sports' Matt Zenitz and Chris Hummer reported that Gilber Edmond is back in the portal after just one season in Tallahassee. Edmond confirmed the news with a retweet/repost on Twitter/X.

Edmond was forced into starting duty with the Gamecocks in 2022 after Jordan Strachan tore his ACL against Arkansas. He was a fine contributor in garnet and black, but he would have been better suited for a rotational role instead of having to play almost every down like he did.

With Florida State, Edmond played a rotational role for the Seminoles and had a slightly smaller impact than he did with the Gamecocks in 2022.

With just one more year of eligibility, could Gilber Edmond make sense as a candidate to return to Columbia? Maybe.

So far in the Shane Beamer era in Columbia, the Gamecocks have not had a player take their name out of the transfer portal or transfer back to the program after leaving. There have been a couple of names (Jordan Burch and Juice Wells, in particular) who have been rumored as candidates to return from the portal, but it has not actually happened under Beamer.

The Gamecocks adding an experienced pass rush specialist like Edmond sounds like a good fit. However, Carolina already added transfer Kyle Kennard (Georgia Tech) to fill that role, and he can play in either the 4-2-5 or 3-3-5. Dylan Stewart is the type of freshman who can play immediately, and Desmond Umeozulu is going to be a year more experienced. JT Geer should be healthy, and Bryan Thomas, Jr. has shown some impressive burst off the edge.

In short, could Gilber Edmond happen? Sure. Will it? Probably not.