Shane Beamer pleased with South Carolina spring portal progress
Head coach Shane Beamer wasn’t sure if he could publicly talk about South Carolina’s two newest transfer portal additions by name yet when he spoke at the Florence Welcome Home Tour event Monday but he was clearly pleased that the Gamecocks added two additional pieces to the wide receiver room.
Beamer, speaking for the first time since Nevada transfer wide receiver Dalevon Campbell and Florida State transfer wide receiver Vandrevius Jacobs both committed to the Gamecocks last week, spoke in general about the portal window without specifically mentioning them by name.
“Yeah, I feel good,” he said. “Coming out of spring practice, I think I talked about it publicly. There were some positions that depth-wise, we weren’t where we wanted to be just from a scholarship number standpoint. Offensive line was one of them. Not saying that we were not good on the offensive line, but just to be able to practice, having a certain number of guys on scholarship. We weren’t there from a lineman standpoint.
“At receiver, we had some areas to address as well. And that was what we went into the portal. Those two positions were essentially primary needs or portal targets for us. I feel like we’ve addressed it well, you know, still not done.”
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During the 2023 season, Campbell played in all 12 games for the Wolfpack, starting nine. He led the team in receiving yards – tallying 594 in total – on 31 receptions.
In 2022, he caught 38 passes for 459 yards and a score.
The 6-foot-4, 218-pounder has one year of eligibiltiy left.
Jacobs, a former four-star prospect who redshirted as a freshman last year, is an intriguing player in that he has a full four years of eligibility left.
He caught three passes for 60 yards and a touchdown last season and was still able to maintain his redshirt status.On3 ranks Jacobs as the No. 31 wide receiver in the portal.
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Beamer, without mentioning Jacobs by name, did hint at one factor in particular that helped the Gamecocks when speaking on a separate question.
“I don’t know whether I can comment on him or not,” he said. “Hypothetically, there may be a Florida State receiver that would be joining our program. Well, Gilber Edmond told him about, here’s the experience you had in Tallahassee, good or bad, but here’s what it’s like in Columbia. He and Gilber are from the same area in Florida, so that certainly helps.”
In addition to the two wide receiver pickups, South Carolina has also been exploring adding another offensive lineman to the roster.
UTEP transfer portal offensive tackle Steven Hubbard, a current Vanderbilt commitment, visited the program on Monday.
“Obviously, the portal’s closed, but if you’re in the portal, you can still take visits as well,” Beamer continued. “So that’s still going on with us and other colleges as well. So we’ll see how it finishes in the end. But I like where we are right now and like where we’re headed also.”
