Mason Love further solidifies specialist double duty being 'doable' after solid spring game
Offense came at a premium in South Carolina’s spring game on Friday night at Williams-Brice Stadium. The Garnet team picked up a 10-7 win over the Black squad with all 17 points scored in the second quarter.
In other words, this meant the Gamecocks went scoreless in the first quarter and then the entire second half. It’s never ideal to see so many drives end in punts, 13 throughout the evening. But considering South Carolina is replacing its entire specialist corps, it worked out well.
William Joyce and Peyton Argent each took reps at punter for the Black team and had their moments. Joyce’s longest kick of the game sailed 47 yards, while Argent launched a 56-yard punt. Mason Love ended up being the main standout of the night, though, as the main specialist for Garnet.
The redshirt freshman, who sat behind Kai Kroeger last season, had eight punts travel a total of 349 yards as he averaged 43.6 yards per attempt. That’s a little below Kroeger’s season average from 2024, but Love did have a 74-yard punt with five landing inside the 20-yard line.
“He’s a guy who’s been around. He’s been in the program for a year now,” head coach Shane Beamer said. “He was behind and worked with Kai and Alex (Herrera), and our other specialists last year. It was good to see him tonight make a field goal, have some nice punts.”
Stay on top of all things Gamecocks for just $1 for 7 days—lock in this special offer today!
As Beamer alluded to, Love also made a 36-yard field goal to open the scoring in the second quarter. There was even a random kicking competition that took place in the middle of the first half. Each kicker lined up for roughly 40-yard tries. Argent’s kick doinked off the left upright and didn’t go in. Joyce and Love each made their kicks, with Love’s sailing high and through the middle of the goalposts.
“When I called them all out to, you know, get the team around them and try and create some pressure situations, he answered the call on that one,” Beamer said.
Top 10
- 1New
Donald Trump blasts NFL
Teams for not drafting Sheduer Sanders
- 2
Jaden Rashada
Makes transfer commitment
- 3
Kim Mulkey
Takes victory lap on South Carolina
- 4Hot
2nd Round NFL Mock Draft
QBs under microscope
- 5
Shedeur Sanders reacts
To going undrafted in 1st round
Get the On3 Top 10 to your inbox every morning
By clicking "Subscribe to Newsletter", I agree to On3's Privacy Notice, Terms, and use of my personal information described therein.
While the spring is over for South Carolina, there are still a few months to go until the regular season arrives. If the season were to start today, Love would most likely be handling punting duties. It’s possible he could be the team’s starting placekicker as well.
In the days leading up to the spring game, Beamer felt that it could be doable for Love to pull double duty. Then, after seeing his performance in front of 36,358 fans on Friday, he still believed in that idea. Though he admitted it would be nice not to have to put any specialist in that position.
“I know I told you it’s not ideal, and it’s not. I kind of wish you had one kicker, one punter,” Beamer said. “But we’ve done it in the past, and we’ll do what’s best for the team.”
For as much as Beamer liked what he saw from Love this spring, he wished he felt better about the specialists at this time. With every facet of special teams needing to be replaced, including punt and kickoff returner, he said it’s “concerning” and that the spring game “didn’t help in some ways as well.”
“We’ll always be looking to see how we can, if there are other ways too,” he said. “You want other guys to continue to come along, too. So that competition in that room is stiff, and they’re still competing as we come out of spring.”
