On3 Roundtable: South Carolina must rely on offensive line depth entering 2023

The old adage goes that football is won in the trenches. If that will hold true this season, South Carolina is going to need members of its offensive line to step up when the 2023 campaign begins.

Gamecocks fifth-year senior Jaylen Nichols, who was projected to be the starting left tackle for the team, will miss the start of the season due to an injury. Two starters from last year’s bowl game — Eric Douglas and Jovaughn Gwyn — are off to the professional ranks.

Gamecock Central’s Wes Mitchell discussed with J.D. PicKell on On3 Roundtable about the questions that currently surround the offensive line.

“This is a spot where they had already lost several guys who started the last couple of years,” Mitchell said. “But you looked at what they had coming back and I didn’t think it was necessarily a massive question. Then they lose Jaylen Nichols in the spring game, which obviously you never want to lose guys in the spring game. It sounds like he’s gonna be out for a while. At the very least, they go into next season not having their starting left tackle to start the year. That probably means potentially shifting a guy from left guard to left tackle in Jakai Moore who’s played both or just having to shift some guys around. If I look at questions, and you always want to kind of answer questions in the spring, I looked at that kind of as a question that got added in the spring and maybe a concern that got added in the spring.

Expectations are high for South Carolina and head coach Shane Beamer in his third season leading the program. The 2022 team won eight games — including wins over top-10 teams in Clemson and Tennessee — and finished the season ranked in the top 25.

The Gamecocks faithful are hoping for a breakout season. Mitchell says for that to happen on the offensive side of the football, the offensive line needs to make the most of the situation.

“I think we know what they have in the receiving corps,” Mitchell said. “I think the tight end group is going to be very, very good, even if they’re not quite nationally known at this point. We know what Rattler can do when he gets comfortable. So for me, it’s gonna be about can that offensive line gel together? Can they have a couple of young guys step up and give all those other guys a chance to actually go do what they can do?”