Shane Beamer on Dylan Stewart: ‘God blessed that man with a lot of ability’

Dylan Stewart recorded four tackles, 1.5 sacks and two forced fumbles during the true freshman’s college debut against Old Dominion over the weekend.

The 6 foot 6, 248-pound Stewart was a Five Star Plus+ recruit coming out of high school as the No. 3 EDGE rusher in the 2024 class. He more than lived up to his expectations during South Carolina‘s season opening win.

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“Obviously, God blessed that young man with a lot of ability,” head coach Shane Beamer said. “That is the first thing. Two, Sterling Lucas has done a great job coaching him up. Being able to bring a lot of different pass rush moves, whatever you want to call it. His physicality, his speed, like I said, his God-given ability that helps him and then Sterling’s coaching that allowed him to do that. Then, you have to give credit to the other 10 players out there, as well, for both of those guys.

“Some of those pressures, sacks, D-line gains or D-line pressures where there is other people involved and somebody is doing their job and Dylan is the one that happens to come free or Kyle [Kennard] happens to come free. That is what was about to happen on the long quarterback run. We just didn’t execute it like we needed to. DBs and linebackers covering making that quarterback hold on to the ball and not be able to get rid of the ball quick. It is a great credit to our defense as a whole unit.”

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Kennard, who transferred into the program after spending four years at Georgia Tech, was just as disruptive. The 6 foot 5 senior ancored down the other EDGE position and compiled 2.5 sacks and two forced fumbles of his own as the Gamecocks survived a 23-19 outing against Old Dominion.

It appears the EDGE position will be well covered for the Gamecocks for the rest of the 2024 season barring any unforeseen setbacks.

Next up for South Carolina is an early SEC road matchup as they travel to Lexington to take on Mark Stoop’s Kentucky Wildcats. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET live on ABC and the ESPN app as both teams look to improve to 2-0 on the early season.