Former Crestwood standout plans to transfer to South Carolina: 'I'm home now'
Western Kentucky tight end Joshua Simon will transfer home to play for South Carolina, the junior told Gamecock Central Wednesday morning.
The former Crestwood standout did the camps and the visits in high school but the South Carolina offer never came. So he left the state to play his college ball.
But after a productive career at Western Kentucky, the Palmetto State native is now getting the chance he didn’t have out of high school.
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“The atmosphere, man,” Simon said when asked what led him to South Carolina. “The atmosphere, the things they’ve got going on that Coach Beamer is doing with the team right now. If you’ve seen it, you’ve seen it. After they beat Clemson and Tennessee, you could kind of see what’s going on down there. Just to come down and be a part of that, to come back home to play football, it’s something I want to be a part of.”
A second-team All-Conference USA selection this season, Simon entered the transfer portal during the first week of December and then recently took a visit to South Carolina after landing an offer from the Gamecocks.
There he got a feeling for what Shane Beamer is building and for Jody Wright’s approach with his tight ends.
“It was very welcoming,” Simon said. “Southern hospitality, ain’t nothing like it. I’m just ready to get to work. At the end of the day, get some work, Power 5 school, SEC. They’ve got everything you need, all the resources there and they accepted me into the program with welcoming arms.”
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Listed at 6-foot-4, 235-pounds, the former three-star prospect from the 2019 class originally chose Western Kentucky over offers from Wake Forest, Louisville, Appalachian State and East Carolina.
There he blossomed into one of the more productive tight ends in school history.
Simon, who chose to play in WKU’s bowl game last week before leaving the school, finishes his WKU career with 86 catches for 1,146 yards and 16 touchdowns in his career. The 16 scores is a school record for his position.
Simon, who should be able to go through spring practice with the Gamecocks, has two years of eligibility left.
He joins a new-look South Carolina tight end room that loses four players from the 2022 roster but is adding six players.
“I kept an eye on the program, the program kept an eye on me or something like that,” Simon said. “But I’m home now.”
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