South Carolina locker room ready to leave lasting legacy in 2023

South Carolina created a lot of excitement about the direction of the program with how they closed last season. Now, heading into the fall, On3’s J.D. PicKell says this can be the season that defines what Shane Beamer’s tenure in Columbia can truly become.

PicKell felt the pulse of the Gamecock’s program in an episode of ‘The Hard Count’ while at SEC Media Days. He described this campaign as the one that helps everyone realize what they are as a team and what they can be as a program as they continue to move onward and, hopefully, upward.

“‘What are we?’ is the sentiment. But, even more so, they’re saying, ‘What is South Carolina going to be after we leave?’. For the guys in that locker, for a guy like Spencer Rattler who’s not going to be back at South Carolina after this coming season,” PicKell said. “What kind of legacy are we leaving? What’s the foundation of South Carolina football?

“Going into year three, you now have, for the most part, your personnel if your Shane Beamer in how you’ve recruited and used the portal. You have your standards, you have your culture,” continued PicKell. “Like, the first two years, you’re kind of trying to get it together. They did a really good job doing that at South Carolina. But now, in year three, it’s like, ‘Okay. What are we? What do we want to be? And what do we want South Carolina to be set up to be in the future?'”

In order to do so, PicKell looked to the trenches for the Gamecocks. If South Carolina wants to have the season that they’re wanting, he says it will start with the performance of both lines.

“What this comes down to for South Carolina? A couple of things, the first of which being you’ve got to be sturdy on the offensive line and the defensive line. The defensive line could not stop the run, the offensive line was not consistent protecting Spencer Rattler,” PicKell said. “In the SEC, y’all? In a line-of-scrimmage league? That is essentially like paying rent. To exist competitively in this conference? You have to be sturdy on the lines of scrimmage. No ifs, ands, or buts. No other way around it. That is the deal. That’s step one.”

From there, he looked to Rattler in his final season of college football. In order to take the next step forward, he says South Carolina needs him to be the player he was at the end of last season rather than at the beginning and middle.

“The second piece of that is Spencer Rattler picking up where he left off at…He’s not without fault. We saw a different Spencer Rattler over the last couple weeks of the season than we did September to October. It’s just the way it was,” said PicKell. “You need to see him be consistent, need to see him cash in. If you put a run game behind him and you protect him? You can ask whatever you want of Spencer Rattler. If you’re going to equip him with the right tools to succeed? You then expect him to succeed because he’s got the all the arm talent.”

“The bottom line is you’ve seen what’s under the hood with Spencer Rattler. You’ve seen the ability, you’ve seen him do it before. It’s not just potential. There’s some real-life things that he’s accomplished,” PicKell said. “But he has to be the guy to be able to capitalize for them to take that next step, to get over eight wins, or to get back to eight wins even.”

South Carolina made a big leap from 2020 to 2021 and another jump from 2021 to 2022. However, with 2023’s campaign drawing close, PicKell says the last thing that the Gamecocks can become is content.

Luckily for them, though, he believes that they have the quarterback and the head coach for the job in order to make sure that doesn’t happen en route to their loftier goals.

“When it comes to what they’ve done the past two years? They’re excited about that. It’s a step in the right direction. But it’s not what Spencer Rattler came back for,” PicKell said. “He didn’t come back to win eight football games. He came back to play for a New Year’s Six Bowl, he came back to have a shot at making some noise in the SEC.”

“If you think they’re shooting for anything lower than that? You’re out of your mind,” said PicKell. “That’s not the standard that Shane Beamer, as a true competitor, is holding his locker room to.”