Dalevon Campbell lays out big goals for himself as potential deep threat at South Carolina
After losing Xavier Legette to the NFL, South Carolina had to go out and get another big wide receiver who could match up closely in height to 6-foot-5 Nyck Harbor. Enter Dalevon Campbell.
Campbell isn’t as tall as Harbor, only standing at 6-foot-4. But he stacks up well enough to where it’s not just Harbor towering over everyone else. More importantly, he adds something to the receivers room that the Gamecocks will need for this season: height.
Campbell was a rather late addition to the roster, committing to South Carolina on April 30. A two-time transfer, he spent the last two years at Nevada. And before that, he was at Illinois for the first three years of his college career.
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Now in his sixth year, Campbell has lofty expectations for himself as he looks to make an immediate impact for the Gamecocks.
“I want to prove I’m one of the best receivers in the nation. I want to go on the field and show that,” Campbell said. “I just want to show I’m a team player and can play at the highest of levels. So that’s really the main thing.”
During his time in the Big Ten, Campbell never really saw a ton of action in the passing game for the Fighting Illini. Once he got to Nevada, that quickly changed. In the last two seasons, he caught 69 passes for 1,053 yards and three touchdowns. He averaged 19.2 yards per catch in 2023, 14th-best in all of college football. Not even Legette, who put up better receiving numbers in a one-year span, could match that number as he averaged 17.7 yards per catch.
That’s what the Gamecocks will be looking to get out of Campbell this year. A guy who can be a real weapon in the passing game, especially when airing it out. And he knows he can fit that role well.
“I could probably go up and get the ball — I know I can go up and get the ball,” Campbell said. “I can attack the ball, highpoint the ball, deep balls. But I want to correct my change of direction. Coming out the top of curls, I want that to be more efficient than what it was in the past.”
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Besides himself and Harbor, there aren’t a ton of tall receivers in the group. Redshirt freshman CJ Adams is the next tallest, standing at 6-foot-2. Other than that, everyone else is 6-foot-1 and under.
But that may play well to their strengths as a collective unit. With a few sizable players, the smaller wideouts bring different facets to the game like quickness and being shifty. That’s why Campbell believes the room is “real versatile” this year.
“I can go up and get it. We have a few other guys that can go up and get it, too,” he said. “So it’s a good, versatile room — we compliment each other. Me going up, you’ve got other guys in the slot on the outside that can do different things, we kind of just accommodate each other, open each other up.”
