South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer had a tough task ahead of him this offseason. Coming off of a 5-7 season in which a lot of good favor had disappeared, some of the team's best players were off to the NFL, and 17 players had entered the transfer portal, the Gamecocks had some big holes to fill on the roster.
Just three weeks since USC's final game of the 2023 season, a lot of those holes have been filled.
The South Carolina football program has brought in 8 transfer commitments (though some outlets do not count junior college players, bringing the total down to 7), and the pledges have all been at positions of need.
The 8 commitments have been three running backs (Arkansas transfer Rocket Sanders, North Texas defection Oscar Adaway, and former South Carolina State Bulldog Jawarn Howell), two wide receivers (Coastal Carolina transfer Jared Brown and prior Vanderbilt Commodore Jayden McGowan), two defensive tackles (junior college product Jerome Simmons and previous Pittsburgh Panther Deandre Jules), and an EDGE rusher (former Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket Kyle Kennard).
The Gamecocks probably aren't done in the transfer portal, either, as they are expected to take a quarterback to compete with rising redshirt freshman LaNorris Sellers and would be in the market for players at several other spots.
Beamer and company's strong work in the portal has gotten the Gamecocks some deserved recognition. As of Saturday morning, USC ranks in the top-6 of two major outlets' transfer portal recruiting rankings. Even though neither On3 nor 247Sports counts Jerome Simmons in their rankings because he comes from Highland Communit College, the Gamecocks rank 6th and 2nd, respectively, in the national rankings.
On3 has South Carolina football's transfer portal class ranked 6th in the country, only behind Minnesota, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Colorado, and Louisville. The rankings still require an update as Friday's commitments have not yet been calculated. Even without Kyle Kennard (who pledged on Friday), the Gamecocks have a higher average transfer commitment rating than 4 of the 5 schools ahead of them.
247Sports' rankings (which have been updated with Friday's numbers) have the Gamecocks in the 2nd spot nationally. Only Colorado, a program that has taken 3 more players in the portal, ranks higher. USC also has the 2nd-best average transfer commitment rating of all of the schools in the 247 top-10.
After a less-than-stellar showing in the 2023 transfer portal cycle, the Gamecocks are among the country's best for 2024.