Shane Beamer impressed with young South Carolina running backs

The South Carolina backfield will look a little bit different this season, as three of the team’s four leading rushers from a season ago have departed. Juju McDowel returns after making two starts last season, rushing for 219 yards and adding 205 receiving yards to his total as well, but the Gamecocks will have to call upon some new additions when running the rock in 2023.

Head coach Shane Beamer spoke about his new additions in the backfield ahead of fall camp, starting with Division II transfer Mario Anderson.

“I’ve been impressed,” Beamer said. “Mario, productive previously to coming here. Had a good spring, showed he’s a guy that can certainly be in the mix for playing time. The key for Mario is it’s going to be continuing to progress and be consistent day in, day out, but has certainly shown an ability.”

Anderson was more than productive at the Division II level, rushing for a school-record 1,560 yards last season at Newberry College in South Carolina along with 19 touchdowns. He was a First-Team Division II All-American and a First-Team All-South Atlantic Conference last season, and the Gamecocks are hoping his game can translate to the SEC level.

South Carolina is also hoping that freshman Djay Braswell could potentially have his game translate early from the high school level as well.

“Djay, for a true freshman, excited about him. He’s fast, probably faster than I ever realized he was when we recruited him to be honest with you,” Beamer admitted. “I mean he was very productive, but he’s had a good summer and hasn’t practiced any. So obviously it’s going to learning the offense and all that, but he works at it and has a really good skill set as well. So been pleased with those two guys.”

Braswell was a four-star prospect out of Washington County high school in Georgia, where he was ranked the No. 15 running back in the nation for this year’s 2023 class according to On3’s Industry Ranking.

But when the Gamecocks need a bigger body in the run game this season, they could be calling upon another true freshman who brings similar positional versatility that Jaheim Bell provided for them last season.

“We are gonna go into preseason working Kam Sandlin our signee at running back. Kam’s a guy that did a little bit of everything in high school and has the ability to run the ball and initially, we were gonna start him out as a tight end,” Beamer said. “And he still may play tight end in his time, but being a guy that can do a little bit of both as well, he’ll be primarily a running back as we start practice.”

There’s no doubt that there are plenty of new faces in South Carolina’s running back room, but who will produce and take on the lion’s share of the workload? Only time will tell, as fall camp has now kicked off in Columbia with Week 1 right around the corner.