South Carolina is six days away from opening preseason practice, and the Gamecocks head into camp with a familiar backdrop: a program trying to shake off a disappointing year under Shane Beamer as he enters his sixth season in charge.
A year ago, expectations were much higher. This time, there is not much chatter about South Carolina as an SEC contender, which makes the start of camp feel more like a reset than a launch.
One of the most interesting new faces is defensive end Caleb Herring. He spent three seasons at Tennessee, played in 36 games and finished with eight tackles for loss, including five sacks.
Now he’s at South Carolina trying to push his game to another level. Herring already picked up the Gamecock Toughness Award for the defense in the spring, and position coach Deion Barnes said recently that Herring’s summer has been better than his spring.
With injury issues thinning the depth at end, Herring has also been asked to step into more of a leadership role. He has a real shot to open the season in the starting lineup, either opposite Dylan Stewart or in Stewart’s place as the experienced pass rusher.
Quarterback LaNorris Sellers remains one of the most important pieces on the roster. His 36-yard touchdown run against Vanderbilt in 2023 and the 50-yard strike to Tyshawn Russell still jump off the page, but Sellers has also lived through the full range of what life can look like at quarterback.
Heading into preseason camp in 2026, he is one of the SEC’s veteran starters with multiple years of experience. He brings major dual-threat ability, with dynamic running and one of the strongest arms in college football.
The challenge now is putting it all together for a third offensive coordinator in three seasons as a starter, likely in what will be his final year at South Carolina.
Special teams is another area worth watching closely. Vicari Swain is expected to handle punt returns and Mason Love should be the punter, but the rest is still unsettled.
South Carolina still needs answers on kickoff duties, kickoff returns and the placekicking job. First-year special teams coach Matthew Smiley has thoughts on the kicking competition, and the Gamecocks also need to get better in other areas of special teams from year to year.
Beamer wants an aggressive approach there, and that has not changed, but some of the biggest successes - including blocking kicks - largely disappeared after Pete Lembo left. Smiley’s imprint will become clearer soon enough.
There is at least some reason for optimism on defense, where the coaching staff has stayed relatively steady. Sterling Lucas departed for LSU, but Deion Barnes arrived from Penn State and has settled in well.
He fits cleanly into Clayton White’s system, and White has been part of the Beamer era from the beginning. Torrian Gray has also been there from the start and picked up co-defensive coordinator duties in the offseason.
Travian Robertson is in his fourth season coaching defensive tackles, and his connection to the program runs even deeper because he played there. That continuity has mattered, and the results have reflected it.
One bolder forecast going into camp is that South Carolina will finish in the top half of the SEC in scoring offense. That would be a notable jump after last season, when the Gamecocks averaged 22.7 points per game overall and 18.1 in league play, both good for 15th out of 16 teams in the SEC.
Mississippi State sat eighth overall at 30.4 points per game. Kendal Briles is viewed as a step up from Mike Shula, and Sellers gives the offense a chance to be more explosive.
There are still questions at running back and along the offensive line, but the expectation is that Briles and Sellers can lift South Carolina just enough to sneak into the conference’s top half in scoring.
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Clemson Let A Playmaker Walk And It Still Raises Questions
Clemsons secondary took a notable hit in January when Ricardo Jones left for Vanderbilt, a move that still lingers because of what he meant to the Tigers defense a season ago. Jones led Clemson with six interceptions in 13 games, and his ability to make plays on the ball made him one of the more disruptive defensive backs in the ACC, even as Clemson moved quickly to patch the hole with transfer safeties Jerome Carter III and Corey Myrick.
Now at Vanderbilt, Jones is already drawing notice from within the program, with coach Clark Lea and defensive tackle Issa Ouattara both pointing to the impact he has made. For South Carolina fans keeping an eye on Clemson's roster churn, it is another reminder that playmakers can leave a bigger void than the depth chart suggests, especially when a defender has a knack for changing games at the back end. [Read more 🡒]
South Carolina Camp Will Decide Who Really Helps LaNorris Sellers
South Carolina heads into preseason camp with plenty of attention on the offense, and the list of names worth tracking is longer than just LaNorris Sellers and Nyck Harbor. The quarterback is the obvious focal point, but the Gamecocks are also sorting through the rest of the roster to see which newcomers and returners can carve out real roles as the season approaches. DJ Black, Darius Gray and Jayden Gibson are among the players drawing notice for what they might add in 2026, giving this camp a longer view than the usual August competition.
The challenge for the staff is figuring out which of those pieces can actually help Sellers when the games start to matter. Coaches and players have already pointed to the skills and readiness of several offensive options, but camp is where promise turns into proof, especially for a group still trying to define its pecking order. For South Carolina, the next few weeks are less about hype than about identifying who can handle the work and make life easier for the quarterback. [Read more 🡒]
Jadeveon Clowney Just Added Another Chapter To South Carolina's Legacy
Jadeveon Clowney is headed back to Houston on a one-year deal, reuniting with the franchise that made him the No. 1 overall pick in 2014. For South Carolina fans, it is another reminder of how much the Gamecocks modern football identity still travels through Clowney, whose name remains tied to one of the most influential careers the program has produced.
Clowney spent last season with the Dallas Cowboys, where he led the team with 8.5 sacks, and he has bounced across multiple NFL stops since leaving Houston in 2019. Even now, he still carries several South Carolina records, and every new move adds another layer to a pro career that keeps sending attention back to Columbia, even when the next stop is still unfolding. [Read more 🡒]