South Carolina’s kicking job has turned into one of the more unusual little battles on the roster, and Shane Beamer has changed the way the Gamecocks are handling it.
That’s saying something for a program where special teams matter. A Beamer-coached team is always going to put real weight on that phase, and South Carolina has certainly done that. But the kicking spot has seen a lot of movement lately: Matthew Smiley is the third special teams coordinator in four seasons, USC is set to start its third long snapper in as many seasons, and the Gamecocks are headed toward a fourth starting place kicker in four years.
The latest competition is between sophomore Max Kelley, Texas Tech transfer Upton Bellenfant and Southeast Missouri State transfer Malik Orsan, who joined the roster in April. Beamer said all three have been getting plenty of work.
“I think all three of them are doing well,” Beamer said. “They were getting in a lot of kicks in practice. We’re really getting them more kicks in front of everybody in practice than we have before.”
That’s the tweak: more chances, more often, and in situations that feel closer to what a game actually looks like.
“If there’s a 10- or 15-second break in what we’re doing offensively (or) defensively and we can get a field goal kick in, then we’re going to do it,” Beamer said. “(We’re) trying to make it even more game-like with how we do things in practice.”
Kelley is the only familiar name in the mix. Last season, as a true freshman, he was in a competition with William Joyce and punter Mason Love that didn’t get publicly settled until South Carolina was out for warmups against Virginia Tech. Kelley ended up handling kickoffs, while the field-goal role went elsewhere.
“(I was) happy but not satisfied,” Kelley said. “I came in wanting to kick field goals.
I mean, that’s what I want to do. Same thing this year.
But just to be on the field as a true freshman in the SEC is really cool.”
After spring practice, it looked as if the starting job would come down to Kelley or Bellenfant. Then South Carolina added Orsan, a move that could have complicated things in a room already built around competition. Kelley didn’t see it that way.
“It wasn’t weird,” he said. “I think it’s needed, another guy for competition. ... A core value of our team is to compete, so I think pushing that is really good and beneficial to all of us.”
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