We’ve officially reached the 100-day mark until a new season of South Carolina football kicks off. This week on Quick Slants , we’re looking big picture on a few items that shouldn’t be overlooked. Items that aren’t only focusing on this upcoming season but beyond.
1- Perspective
A year ago I wrote about how much young talent this program has. While there were some players who opted to hit the transfer portal in the off-season, a lot of the young players who are back gained valuable experience last season. But like looking at a glass of milk that’s filled halfway, it’s all about perspective.
In the moment, it wasn’t ideal to play multiple true freshmen because of injuries or because of lack of depth. Naturally, there were going to be some growing pains. That’s why in the moment it was like looking at a glass “half empty.” But as we head into a new year, you start to look at that same glass as “half full,” because of the experience those players gained. Especially the true freshmen, including guys like Tree Babalade, Trovon Baugh, or Jalon Kilgore. There were many cases where young stars had to step up last season and they held their own.
Heading into this year, there’s still a lot of young talent on this team but the addition of more than 20 players via the portal, with many of those guys being experienced players, the Gamecocks have a healthy blend up upperclassmen on this year’s team. Adding experience to rooms such as linebacker, EDGE, running back, offensive line, and wide receiver won’t only create deeper rooms but it’ll also force younger players not to feel too comfortable.
No one will want to hear this but I’ll stay consistent. A year ago, I said that I felt like this team was two years away from really making a big splash. A year later, I still believe that 2025 will be their big year but they have to continue to show this season that they’re progressing.
2- An interesting stat
In this era of college football, it’s not uncommon to see 20 or 30+ players on the roster who came via the transfer portal. But one thing that was brought to my attention from a Gamecock fan was the number of South Carolina offensive players who have been at USC for at least three seasons. Believe it or not, there’s only five scholarship players on offense that return this season.
What does that mean? That’s hard to tell other than the fact that there’s just a lot of opportunities for players to compete for both starting and two-deep roles. What this also tells me is that this group has a tremendous opportunity to grow together to form a rapport that could lead to special things in the near future. Of course, that means players need to be retained each season but that’s another part of recruiting these days.
3- Bring on June
With May coming to an end, recruiting is about to pickup for South Carolina. At least that’s what recent history would suggest. Of USC’s 40 high school commitments for the class of 2023 and 2024, 11 committed to the Gamecocks in June. Add in the class of 2022, and that number jumps up to 18. Below is where South Carolina has stood with commitments heading into June.
2022 class end of May: 4
2023 class end of May: 1
2024 class end of May: 9
2025 class as of May 22: 6
While South Carolina has attacked the portal more recently, they’ve still shown a commitment to bringing in talent out of high school. And those high school commitments tend to start picking up for them in the summer ahead of fall camp. I expect the Gamecocks to see a big uptick over these next two months.
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