Gilber Edmond has seen Vandrevius Jacobs play more than anyone at South Carolina. Here's what he thinks
Vandrevius Jacobs’ opportunities were very limited, but when he did get a chance to play, he made the most of it.
In his first game as a freshman at Florida State last year, Jacobs entered with the Seminoles well ahead of Southern Miss in the fourth quarter. Even up by 42 points, the team was still driving down the field. Then came the moment.
On a 2nd and 7 play inside the 20-yard line, quarterback Tate Rodemaker faked a handoff to his running back. With an open receiver near the line of scrimmage, he dumped a pass off to Jacobs who scooted past a few defenders and dove near the pylon for a 13-yard touchdown, the first catch of his college career.
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After that, Jacobs would only make two more catches the rest of the season as Florida State finished the year 13-1. Now coming to South Carolina as a transfer in 2024, he’ll be looking to make a bigger impact than he did in Tallahassee. And if there’s any reason to believe he can, just talk to redshirt senior EDGE Gilber Edmond.
“You expect him to make a lot of good plays, and that’s what he did in practices and whenever he did get in the games, even at Florida State,” said Edmond, who played with Jacobs at Florida State in 2023.
But the pair’s history goes back even further than last year. Both happen to be from Fort Pierce, Florida. When Edmond was a senior at Westwood High School, Jacobs was entering his freshman year on that same team.
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“I’ve been seeing him make plays since he was a freshman and I was senior,” Edmond said. “So whenever we were both at Florida State, it was kind of like the same thing — just seeing the young guy just do spectacular things with his skillset, his speed and his hands.”
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After Edmond graduated and began his college career at South Carolina, Jacobs still had three years of high school to go. He later played for and graduated from Vero Beach, where he caught 149 passes for 2,320 yards and 31 touchdowns in two seasons. He was ranked as the No. 26 wide receiver in the country and No. 36 overall prospect in Florida by On3. So the talent has always been there.
In his first fall camp with the Gamecocks, things have been going well, especially from what Edmond has seen.
“Seeing him coming here, he’s been doing the same thing,” he said. “Even (last week) in practice, he had a good one-on-one catch in one of our first periods. So he just continues to be a guy that is hungry and wants to prove he can get the ball and make good things happen.”
