Starters in secondary coming together, Beamer 'excited' by young talent after first scrimmage
Despite saying that all 22 starting positions were technically up for grabs, Shane Beamer essentially named the starting defensive backs after Saturday’s team scrimmage.
Cam Smith, Darius Rush and Marcellas Dial are slated to play the corners and RJ Roderick and Central Michigan transfer Devonni Reed are the favorites to play the safety positions.
As for who is after them, Beamer said that’s still yet to be determined.
“Those five have done a really good job as our five starting defensive backs right now,” Beamer said. “Now who’s going to be the backups behind those guys? Got to figure that out, certainly that’s a competition that’s up.”
That group of five shouldn’t come as a surprise to Gamecock fans and barring injuries or a great performance by someone else, that group will likely stay the same going into Sep 3.
Rush and Roderick both started in all but one game they played in last season while Dial and Smith both made seven starts for the Gamecocks.
Reed brings even more experience to the secondary, with 41 starts over 43 games in his career he will be the de facto replacement for All-American Jaylen Foster.
Outside of the veterans in the room, the looming issue and recurring theme among Beamer’s press conferences has been the depth in the secondary.
It’s something that Beamer said the team is working through as fall camp progresses, but he added after Saturday’s scrimmage that the young defensive backs have caught his eye.
Specifically, Beamer said that local talent like freshmen DeQuandre Smith and Nick Emmanwori have stood out amongst the rest.
Smith was a three star recruit coming out of Spring Valley High School and Emmanwori was a four star out of Irmo High School.
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Beamer said he was “excited” by the progress the two have made and he could see them making an impact on the field once the season rolls around.
“Those two guys are football players,” Beamer said. “Special teams, defense, you know, at this point, they’re going to help us this year the way that they’re working.”
Outside of the Palmetto State products, Beamer mentioned he was also impressed with how Kajuan Banks has fared in camp. Banks was a three star recruit out of Tallahassee, Florida.
“There’s a lot of young defensive players that have really stood out to me and have shown they are physical players that like to hit,” Beamer said.
Beamer added that they haven’t quite solidified roles for those young players like Banks, Emmanwori and Smith, but that they would use the rest of camp to figure that out.
“Those guys have gotten off to a great start,” Beamer said. “Now let’s see if they can continue to progress here as we go into week two and classes start and a lot more on their plate.”
