As transfer portal reopens, what are South Carolina football's potential needs?

South Carolina Football's Spring Transfer Portal Needs:
Tall Wide Receiver

On the current South Carolina football roster, there are two wide receivers listed taller than 6'1". One is redshirt freshman CJ Adams who has never played and is injured. The other is sophomore speedster Nyck Harbor who is spending most of his spring and some of his summer running with Gamecock Track and Field instead of being full-time with the football program.

Because of that, the Gamecocks have found themselves potentially in the market for some size at the wide receiver position.

There is a chance the Gamecocks elect to stand pat with their current pass-catching situation and utilize athletic tight ends like Josh Simon and freshman Michael Smith as receivers in some sets. However, with Simon being the only tight end on the roster with experience playing in Columbia and Smith being a true freshman, that isn't the most likely scenario.

Instead, after bringing in 3 smaller receivers during the winter window (Gage Larvadain, Jared Smith, and Ahmari Huggins-Bruce), finding a bigger-bodied player who moves better than a tight end makes sense.

Dowell Loggains showed a strong desire to throw the ball deep in 2023, and most of those designed deep balls went to X receiver Xavier Legette. Nyck Harbor has the size and skill set of an outside receiver, but his lack of practice time this offseason should temper fans' expectations. Could he be a breakout player in 2024? Sure. Would it be fair to expect it? Probably not.

There will be more receivers in the transfer portal than almost any other position, and of all the positions on the field, it is one of the few at which a player can get ready to play very quickly. Who the Gamecocks might target is unknown, though, there have been rumors flying around that rising senior JJ Jones (North Carolina) could be hitting the portal. He considered the Gamecocks out of high school and is a Palmetto State native.