South Carolina’s running back race is one of the first real storylines of preseason camp, and it starts with a simple question: can Matt Fuller turn momentum into the top job?
The redshirt sophomore enters camp with plenty going for him. Fuller climbed the depth chart last season, finished with 72 carries for 260 yards and two touchdowns, and carried that into spring, when he picked up South Carolina’s 2026 Joe Morrison Offensive Player of the Spring award. He also got real game experience in 2025, appearing in 10 games and logging 178 offensive snaps, according to Pro Football Focus.
That resume is why running backs coach Stan Drayton views Fuller as a legitimate starter candidate.
“Well, experience number one,” Drayton said. “He’s played in a bunch of games around here.
His body type is legit. He’s got a pro-style body type about him.
He’s worked his butt off, extremely strong. He’s really elevated his level of play from a football IQ standpoint, understanding the system, eliminating mistakes.”
Fuller won’t be alone in the fight, though. Christian Clark gives Shane Beamer and Drayton another serious option in the backfield after transferring in from Texas. Clark, also a redshirt sophomore, posted 236 yards on 55 carries with two touchdowns last year and played 172 offensive snaps, per PFF - numbers that line up closely with Fuller’s production.
“Pretty good, man. Fast, strong and physical,” Fuller said of Clark.
Clark also brings a little more than regular-season experience to Columbia. He ran for 105 yards and a touchdown in Texas’ 41-27 win over Michigan in the Citrus Bowl.
The bigger issue for South Carolina is not just who starts, but whether the offense can get enough out of the run game. The Gamecocks struggled on the ground last season, and in Kendal Briles’ new offense, the hope is for a much better return in 2026.
South Carolina’s offense has looked its best when the run game is threatening. The source of that kind of balance was clear in 2024, when the Gamecocks went 9-4 and LaNorris Sellers was paired with Rocket Sanders’ 881-yard season.
For now, Fuller looks like the cleanest answer to the RB1 question. But Drayton didn’t rule out a shared workload, and the idea of Fuller and Clark forming a true tandem is very much in play. If that’s how the room settles, South Carolina could simply ride the hotter hand from week to week.
Drayton’s bigger message is about depth and competition. He wants someone to separate, but he also likes the number of capable bodies in the room if the Gamecocks need to lean on multiple backs over the course of the season.
“We’re just waiting for a guy to just put some hair on his chest and claim it,” Drayton said. “That’s the one thing that I don’t think anyone has done at this point.
I think we’re on schedule as far as our development is concerned, though. I think these next couple of weeks will be critical for somebody to kind of step up and claim that role.”
“Obviously, we’re in the SEC, so every week is going to be a tough go. So as the year goes on, we’ll have three to four ready to go. Feeling really excited about the three to four quality that we can have behind whoever becomes that guy, and we’ll just take it from there.”
Beyond Fuller and Clark, there are a few more names worth tracking. Isaiah Augustave, a redshirt junior who transferred from Colorado last year, appeared in three games and flashed enough speed and explosiveness to catch Beamer’s attention during camp last season. Jawarn Howell, who was a star at SC State, has not yet broken through in Columbia, but there’s still a path for him to contribute more than just depth in 2026.
Jabree Coleman is another option in the room. He followed Drayton from Penn State, redshirted last season behind a pair of All-Big Ten backs, and has not played in a college game yet. Even so, Drayton described him as a “very smooth mover” on the field.
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