This was always going to be the case. When many of South Carolina\u2019s older players made plans to return for 2024, most in their last year of eligibility, Shane Beamer was going to have plenty of work to do in the offseason to come.<\/p>\n
After a disappointing 5-7 season in 2023, the Gamecocks reaped the rewards of bringing back their starters and finished 9-4. But now comes the hard part: replacing those starters \u2014 five on offense and seven on defense to be exact.<\/p>\n
Beamer and his staff filled as many holes as they could to replace those starters. They earned 13 commitments from the transfer portal, many of which will address top needs. <\/p>\n
[Join GamecockCentral: $1 for 7 days]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n How those players will end up doing at South Carolina is a topic for another day. But at least for now, Beamer sees this latest portal cycle as a mission accomplished. <\/p>\n \u201cI think we did a good job of it. We were very targeted as far as what we were going to try and do,\u201d Beamer said. \u201cWe lost our top four defensive tackles, if you throw\u00a0(DeAndre) Jules in that. We lost our center; we lost both guards. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have great confidence in the young men that are in our program. But that\u2019s the heart of your offense and defense that left, so we knew that we needed to increase the depth at all those positions.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the positions that received the most attention, offensive and defensive line were at the top of the pecking order. South Carolina landed three offensive linemen in hopes of replacing its previous starting center and two guards. Then on the defensive line, the team picked up two tackles and one edge rusher. <\/p>\n Some of the other positions where the Gamecocks brought in new talent with starters leaving came at tight end, linebacker and defensive back. They even added another quarterback to prepare for the long-term future after current starter LaNorris Sellers moves on.<\/p>\n [Win tickets: South Carolina-Auburn WBB]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n When it came to the evaluation process, Beamer, of course, focused on positions where South Carolina needed to attack the portal the most. But par for the course, he wanted players who were the right fit for the program. <\/p>\n \u201cI think we brought in guys that have upside, guys that love football,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were willing to walk away from some guys that I don\u2019t think quite fit what we were going to be about, and we figured that out during the process of trying to recruit them. But I like where we are.\u201d<\/p>\n Even if it meant passing up on specific players, they were willing to do what was best for the team. Overall, they seemed to have no trouble adding players at the main positions. But they noticeably didn\u2019t land a wide receiver.<\/p>\n To be fair, it\u2019s not like receiver was a position lacking depth. South Carolina will return two of its top three pass catchers, along with three more receivers. Plus, there are six receivers joining the program from the latest high school signing class. But that didn\u2019t mean Beamer didn\u2019t at least explore some external possibilities.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery receiver that went the portal, my first question to (wide receivers coach)\u00a0Mike Furrey\u00a0was, \u2018Do you feel like this guy is going to be better than the freshman we have, or better by the end of the season than the guys we have in our program?\u2019 And if the answer was, \u2018No, I don\u2019t think he will be,\u2019 then we didn\u2019t even pursue them,\u201d Beamer said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a lot of excitement, a lot of belief in the young freshmen that we have that fueled our decisions when it comes to the portal in a lot of ways.\u201d<\/p>\n [Win tickets: South Carolina-Texas A&M MBB]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n With spring practice set to begin in a little under two months,<\/a> Beamer likes where the current roster is at. He believes South Carolina is currently at 84 scholarships, which puts it one below the maximum amount. The next portal cycle window opens on April 16\u00a0and closes on April 25.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of the decisions that we made in regards to the portal in the last month were, \u2018Let\u2019s give these guys on our team an opportunity here in spring practice, see where we are,’\u201d Beamer said. \u201cAnd then, we have a better idea with some flexibility at the end of spring practice as far as what we do next.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Shane Beamer assesses latest portal cycle and why South Carolina didn\u2019t add any receivers<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This was always going to be the case. When many of South Carolina\u2019s older players…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Discuss South Carolina football on The Insiders Forum!<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n