South Carolina football star brings home two national awards in collegiate debut

Saturday wasn't exactly a banner start for Shane Beamer's fourth year at the helm of the South Carolina football program. Facing off against a supremely outmatched Old Dominion Monarchs squad, the Gamecocks barely squeaked by with a 23-19 victory, and after the game, Beamer called his team's performance "awful."

Still, there were some positives that the South Carolina football fanbase can take from the less-than-stellar showing in Williams-Brice Stadium in week 1. No positive was greater than the effort put forth by the Gamecock defensive line.

Kyle Kennard and Dylan Stewart dominated at defensive end, combining for 4 sacks, 6 tackles for loss, and 4 forced fumbles. The defensive tackle group of DeAndre Jules, TJ Sanders, Tonka Hemingway, Boogie Huntley, and Monkell Goodwine were good, too, adding 13 tackles, 1 sack, 1 tackle for loss, 2 quarterback hurries, 1 fumble recovery, and a blocked PAT.

The unit was the top performing position group in the game, and Kennard and Stewart were USC's two best players.

Chris Hummer of 247Sports took notice, naming Dylan Stewart the National Freshman of the Week.

In addition to Stewart's impressive box score numbers, he also added 4 quarterback hurries and made the play that flipped the game, forcing a Grant Wilson fumble that was recovered by DeAndre Jules inside the 10-yard line and that led to the game-winning touchdown by quarterback LaNorris Sellers.

PFF graded Stewart with the unimaginably high score of 97.4 and placed the true freshman on their National Team of the Week as the country's overall Defensive Player of the Week.On the SEC Team of the Week, Stewart was joined by Gamecock teammates Tonka Hemingway and Jalon Kilgore.

Stewart and the rest of the South Carolina football team will face a tougher opponent in week two as they travel to Lexington, Kentucky to face off against the SEC rival Kentucky Wildcats.