South Carolina Football: Former Gamecock defensive lineman finds transfer desination

South Carolina football has been one of the most active programs in the entire country in the transfer portal this cycle. With over 20 players leaving the Gamecocks and over 15 coming into the program, USC is going to put a pretty different roster onto the field when spring practice begins.

One of the position groups that has seen the most turnover is defensive tackle.

The Gamecocks have added portal commitments from three upperclassmen in Jerome Simmons (Highland Community College), Deandre Jules (Pittsburgh), and Monkell Goodwine (Alabama). They also lost two players as D'Andre Martin and Felix Hixon were among the first players to announce their transfer portal entrances.

Martin quickly found a new team, returning to his home state of North Carolina to play for the Charlotte 49ers. This week, Hixon also announced where he will play next fall.

After two years buried on the depth chart in Columbia, Felix Hixon will try to work his way onto the field with the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders.

With so many players ahead of him on the depth chart (TJ Sanders, Tonka Hemingway, Boogie Huntley, Nick Barrett, Jamaal Whyce, and likely all three of the incoming transfer players), it makes sense for Hixon to look for snaps somewhere else, and there should be playing time available at MTSU.

A potential negative of Hixon leaving is that he was one of just a small number of young defensive tackles on the roster. With Hixon and Martin transferring out of the South Carolina football program, only Jamaal Whyce has more than two years of eligibility remaining.

For next year, the Gamecocks looked much better on the defensive line late in the year last fall after rolling primarily with a 3-3-5 look instead of the long-standing 4-2-5 base formation fans were used to seeing in Columbia.