Beamer teases an early frontrunner on offensive line as spring ball wraps

Shane Beamer has made it clear: South Carolina doesn’t have a depth chart in April. With the first game of the 2025 season still over four months away, why would he?

Earlier in the month, Beamer went on a nearly four-minute rant after a recent media report indicated a first-team offensive line, a second-team offensive line, and a third-team offensive line. This was news to Beamer since, of course, there was no depth chart in the middle of spring practice.

But in a surprising twist, the fifth-year head coach, who’s always preached the importance of competition, dropped a small hint about a potential starter on his offensive line this early on.

“Coming out of the spring, as you would say, here’s a depth chart little nugget,” Beamer said after South Carolina’s spring game on Friday. “You’d say that Boaz Stanley, coming out of spring, would probably be the starting center for us.”

This doesn’t necessarily mean Stanley is a lock to be the starting center on Aug. 31. There’s still a lot of time between now and the season opener in Atlanta. What it does mean, though, is that Stanley, a transfer from Troy, has made great progress in his first few months in Columbia.

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Heading into the new season, center is one of the main positions that South Carolina is looking to fill a big void at. Vershon Lee, who started all 13 games at center last season, is out of eligibility. Stanley, a seven-game starter there at his previous school in 2024, has already impressed his quarterback, LaNorris Sellers.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him down. He’s always smiling. No matter what, if it’s good or bad,” Sellers said. “He just knows what he’s doing. He has a lot of experience at the college level.”

Returning for his second season as the starter, Sellers understands the importance of having a good connection with the center. He had that last year with Lee, and he looks to be off to a good start with Stanley.

In Friday’s spring game, Sellers didn’t take snaps with Stanley, though. With the Garnet and Black team rosters split up through a draft, Rodney Newsom Jr. would be Sellers’ starting center for the night.

Newsom transferred from Western Kentucky to South Carolina back in January, just like Stanley did when he left Troy. The sixth-year offensive lineman started all 13 games with the Hilltoppers in 2024. But only a few of his snaps came at center. Then on Friday, some problems began to arise.

Newsom had a pair of false starts and a bad snap that sailed well over the outstretched hands of Sellers.

“I just think it was a mistake on his part,” Sellers said of what happened on the high snap. “I mean, it happens. First game in Williams-Brice, stuff like that. So I understand.”

Sellers only played for two series with the Black team’s offense before taking a backseat the rest of the game. He completed 4-of-7 passes for 53 yards but was “sacked” twice.

Some of the “sacks” had to do with the fact that Sellers wasn’t playing behind what would be a regular offensive line. Again, the offensive linemen were divided between the two teams in the game. And while it’s not a guarantee, given how he’s proven to make something out of nothing, there’s a chance he would’ve broken out of said sacks if this were a real game.

“We just kind of said, not drawn out of a hat, but let’s just get seven on both sides,” Beamer said. “Seven on the Garnet, seven on the Black, and make sure we got enough tackles and we got five starters and two backups and just mix it up as well.”

With Stanley seemingly on the right path to becoming the team’s center, there are still four other spots to determine. Two previous starters, Cason Henry and Josiah Thompson, are back at tackle. The guard position will need to be filled after losing starters at those spots. Fortunately, there’s time to figure that out. But the spring was an early indicator of where things stand.

“The month of May and the summer were critical for our offensive line last year,” Beamer said. “It’s going to be critical for our offensive line this year, as those guys just continue to gel and come together as well.”

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