South Carolina Football: Gamecock transfer receivers listed as top-10 SEC returners

South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer and his staff completely reworked the wide receiver room in Columbia this offseason. As Carolina lost the majority of its production from the position over the past two seasons, the Gamecocks attacked the transfer portal to replenish the talent pool.

In all, USC added five transfer portal wideouts this offseason as Jared Brown (Coastal Carolina Chanticleers), Gage Larvadain (Miami (OH) Redhawks), and Ahmari Huggins-Bruce (Louisville Cardinals) joined the program over the winter, and Dalevon Campbell (Nevada Wolfpack) and Vandrevius Jacobs (Florida State Seminoles) committed to Carolina this spring.

Two of these new Gamecocks are considered top-10 returning wide receivers in the SEC heading into the 2024 season by Pro Football Focus (clearly, "returning" does not mean returning to a particular team but returning to college football as a whole). Jared Brown (6th; 80.7 PFF grade) and Gage Larvadain (9th; 77.3 PFF grade) join Florida's Eugene "Tre" Wilson and Elijhah Badger as the only teammates in the top-10.

South Carolina football fans have significant questions about the wide receiver position heading into the season because no returning wideouts have more than 13 catches, 1 touchdown, or 195 yards while wearing garnet and black (Nyck Harbor and Luke Doty hold those marks). However, with Brown and Larvadain's high PFF grades from last season, some of those questions might be answered.

Brown and Larvadain are realistic candidates to start this fall for the Gamecocks, and their speed and versatility as receivers could help offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains throw in a few extra wrinkles into the game plan. Brown carried the ball a lot as a rusher at Coastal Carolina, and both he and Larvadain have a history of being used on gadget plays.

Both players have career longs of 75 yards or longer, too, so the deep ball that was so often thrown to Xavier Legette in 2023 could have new targets in Brown and Larvadain in 2024.

With such little continuity from last year's receiver group still on the team, the battle out wide could be ten players deep this summer, but Brown and Larvadain are among the favorites to wind up with a lot of playing time catching passes from new starting quarterback LaNorris Sellers.