South Carolina Football: Former Gamecock signs new pro contract

Former South Carolina football wide receiver Josh Vann has a new professional contract. After spending some time with the Carolina Panthers last year as an undrafted free agent, the former Gamecock is signing with the Memphis Showboats of the new UFL after the merger of the USFL and XFL. The league will play this spring.

Vann finished his South Carolina football career with over 1300 yards and 7 touchdowns receiving. He was an All-SEC player in 2021 as he pulled down 43 catches for 679 yards and 5 touchdowns despite playing in a run-first offense that had to start four different players at the quarterback position.

Some of Vann's best performances came in famous Gamecock blowouts over the Florida Gators in 2021 and over the Tennessee Volunteers in 2022. In those games, Vann had 189 yards and 3 touchdowns. The Florida game was his third-highest receiving yardage total (111 yards), and the Tennessee game was his only multi-touchdown performance.

Vann was also a really good punt returner for the Gamecocks as a senior. He never was able to break one for a touchdown (except for one really nice 75-yarder in 2022 that was called back due to a penalty), but he was one of the best in the entire country, averaging over 15 yards per return.

Vann was a great story of perseverence and never-give-up tenacity in garnet and black, as well. In his first three years, he struggled with drops even though he had really good hands. He worked hard to fight through the problem, and he broke out in 2021. In his final two seasons with the South Carolina football program, Vann had over 1000 yards of offense and 8 touchdowns compared to under 400 yards and just 2 touchdowns in his first three seasons.

The UFL season will kick off their 10-game regular season schedule on March 30th, and the championship will be played in June.