Gamecock Football Season Preview
The 2024 South Carolina Football team officially reports for fall camp on Thursday, Aug. 1, with the first practice scheduled for Friday, Aug. 2.
The trajectory of building a program and getting it to the level that meets expectations is rarely linear.
After exceeding expectations in each of his first two seasons in Columbia, head coach Shane Beamer’s Gamecocks took a small step back in 2023. Coach Beamer took over a program that went 2-8 in 2020 and improved it to 7-6 in 2021, earning him a share of the Steve Spurrier First-Year Coach of the Year Award. He followed that up with an 8-5 campaign and a national ranking in 2022, again surpassing the preseason prognostications, before slipping back to a 5-7 mark last fall in a season that was marred by numerous injuries, most notably on the offensive line.
Undeterred, Coach Beamer is driven to right the ship and guide the Gamecocks as they compete in the new-look, ultra-competitive, 16-team Southeastern Conference with a goal of earning a spot in the expanded College Football Playoffs.
After the disappointing 2023 season changes were inevitable, and Coach Beamer did not shy away from making moves both on and off the field in an effort to recapture the program’s upward trajectory.
Coach Beamer went to work to upgrade his on-field coaching staff. SEC coaching veteran Marquel Blackwell was brought on board to mentor a revamped running backs room after working at Ole Miss and Texas A&M over the past two seasons. When special teams guru Pete Lembo left to take a head coaching position at Buffalo, Coach Beamer did what most thought was not possible – find another special teams savant to at least match and possibly even improve the South Carolina special teams units. Coach Beamer was able to do that with the hiring of Joe DeCamillis as associate head coach/special teams coordinator. DeCamillis, who has family ties to the Carolina football program through his late father-in-law, Gamecock Legend Dan Reeves, brings over 30 years of NFL special teams experience to Columbia, including a pair of Super Bowl rings. The next move of the coaching carousel saw the return of Shawn Elliott to Columbia as the run game coordinator/tight ends coach. Elliott, a Camden, S.C. native who served as the Georgia State head coach for the past seven seasons, was an assistant under Steve Spurrier at Carolina during the glory days when the Gamecocks posted three-straight 11-win campaigns from 2011-2013. Elliott brings the wisdom of running his own program coupled with his intense, high-energy brand of coaching back to Columbia. The final piece of the puzzle was the addition of Mike Furrey as wide receivers coach. Furrey, who played in the NFL for eight years and coached in the league for an additional four, has spent the past two seasons as the head coach at Division II Limestone University.
Coach Beamer also went to work to upgrade the roster. South Carolina added 20 incoming scholarship transfers, along with 15 freshmen newcomers, most of whom arrived in January and got an early start by going through spring drills. Coupled with a bevy of newcomers from a year ago, nearly two-thirds of the Gamecocks’ spring roster is built on players who are in either their first or second year in the program. The areas that received the biggest influx of transfer talent were at wide receiver where five players were brought in and at running back where three players were added. Three transfers joined the offensive line, while four defensive linemen and a pair of linebackers also came through the portal.
The coaching staff will be tasked with getting those newcomers to buy into a culture already established and getting them to gel with the returners to build a cohesive squad all working together and towards the same goals.
The Gamecocks return 44 lettermen from last year’s squad, 16 on offense, 25 on the defensive side of the ball, and three specialists. Among that group are 14 returning starters, five on offense, eight on defense and one specialist.
Offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains must replace arguably the most talented quarterback ever to wear the Garnet & Black in Spencer Rattler, and Xavier Legette, who turned in one of the best individual seasons by a wide receiver in school history. With a new quarterback at the helm and a slew of established running backs on board, the Gamecocks are looking for improvement in the run game and a more balanced look on offense overall.
Redshirt freshman signal-caller LaNorris Sellers was named the starting quarterback coming out of the spring. Sellers is cut from a completely different cloth than what Rattler provided over the past two seasons, so look for Loggains to adjust accordingly, taking advantage of Sellers’ exceptional size and athleticism. While last year’s strength was in the passing game, this year’s offense, at least on paper, figures to make more of a concerted effort to establish the run. All-SEC caliber running back Raheim “Rocket” Sanders looks to bounce back to his 2022 form after struggling with injuries last season at Arkansas. He will be complemented by transfers Oscar Adaway III and Jawarn Howell, along with returner Juju McDowell, giving the backfield much more quality depth than they’ve had in a number of years. The offensive line, which was decimated by injuries a year ago, has four starters returning, including left tackle Tree Babalade, left guard Jakai Moore, right guard Trovon Baugh and right tackle Vershon Lee, and have an influx of talent which should make for great competition and improved depth as the coaches determine the best five and their best positions. The tight end room features a pair of veterans in Joshua Simon and Brady Hunt and should see no drop off. Nyck Harbor, fresh off an All-American track season, is the lone returning starter at wide receiver, but that unit has been overhauled with five transfers looking to make an impact, so starters and rotational players will need to be decided in the fall.
Defensive coordinator Clayton White has eight returning starters who have been through the SEC wars, with leaders at every level of his Flex-Nickel package. A trio of veterans in Tonka Hemingway, Alex Huntley and T.J. Sanders are forces in the middle of the defensive line. The EDGE position is loaded with experienced veterans and talented youngsters who will push for early playing time. All-SEC performer Debo Williams returns at linebacker where the Gamecocks will be much more athletic and deeper than they were a year ago when Williams was asked to be on the field for virtually every meaningful snap. The secondary features a pair of safeties in Nick Emmanwori and DQ Smith, who figure to be one of the top tandems in the country. In addition, Nickel Jalon Kilgore was a Freshman All-American a season ago. O’Donnell Fortune returns as a starter at one of the cornerback positions, giving defensive backs coach Torrian Gray four returning starters among the five secondary positions.
Joe DeCamillis will have a chance to put his stamp on the special teams units which feature two of the nation’s best in punter Kai Kroeger, a 2022 All-American, and returning All-SEC long snapper Hunter Rogers.
When you want to be the best, you have to play the best. As has regularly been the case, South Carolina boasts one of the nation’s toughest schedules. With the expanded SEC, the 2024 slate, will have a different look than in past years. The Gamecocks will not face traditional rivals Florida, Georgia or Tennessee, but have games against Blue Bloods like LSU, Alabama and Oklahoma.
With that on tap, the opportunity is there to keep the trajectory headed up.
