South Carolina added a new name to its 2026 roster on Thursday afternoon, landing kicker Ethan Sanchez, and head coach Shane Beamer wasted no time explaining why the Gamecocks made the move so close to the opener.
Beamer said the addition was about raising the level of competition and strengthening depth at a spot that remains unsettled. He pointed to Sanchez’s track record at the college level, including time at Old Dominion and Houston, as the reason the Gamecocks pushed to get the deal done.
“For me, it's just like any position. Constantly increasing the depth and competition that we have at every position,” Beamer said on 'Carolina Calls' with Todd Ellis.
“We have three talented kickers on our team, and I told them that. They are inexperienced in a lot of ways, too.
Ethan, who we were able to bring in today, is someone that has kicked. He kicked for Old Dominion two years ago in Columbia.
So, he's been in environments like Williams-Brice Stadium. He's kicked game-winning kicks when he was at Houston most recently.
“It's a high-quality person that has experience at this level. Knowing that we have three really good kickers, in my opinion, on our team right now that I told them today, they will be kicking on Saturday and the best thing they can do is go kick really, really well and make this decision easy that they are the kicker.
“Felt like it was something that we needed to pursue. Optimistic that he will be available next Saturday for Towson.”
Sanchez’s résumé is a strong one. In 2025 at Houston, he was a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award after going 21-of-26 on field goals.
That included a 9-for-12 mark from 40-49 yards and 1-of-2 from 50-plus, along with a perfect 43-for-43 on extra points. Before that, he spent three seasons at Old Dominion and made 35 of 46 field-goal attempts.
Beamer said the school had been working through the move for some time, not just on Thursday. He said he spoke with team captains on Monday, checked with the SEC and got approval from his administration before the signing became official.
“This isn't something that just happened today. We have been talking about this for a little bit,” Beamer said.
“I met with our captains on Monday and brought this possibility up with them to see what their thoughts would be on it. We have obviously cleared it with the SEC that they would be OK with it as well as my bosses and our administration.
Everyone signed off on it today, including the Southeastern Conference.
“I am not adding NFL players so I am not that guy. He was never on an NFL roster.
He thought his eligibility was up and he got an opportunity to try out. He didn't make it with the 49ers.
He never signed anything. He has everything documented.
We've talked to the 49ers to make sure we got the up and up for how long he was in San Francisco.”
Beamer also settled the immediate kicking picture for Saturday’s season opener, naming Max Kelley as the starter and saying he will handle kickoffs as well.
“They all handled it well. Told them too that we have done everything that we can do in practice,” Beamer said.
“We have to go just kick it in games now. Hopefully we get more than one kick, whether it be field goal, extra point, whatever and I would love to be able to get more than Max in the game on Saturday.
Not saying that we are winning big, we want to get a bunch of kicks but if it is a 7-0 game or 10-7 game, I have no problem getting some of those other kickers some kicks in those situations, too, because I feel like they have earned it.”
South Carolina faces Kent State on Saturday at 12:45 p.m. on SEC Network.
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