South Carolina building strong receiver room behind veteran core
Ahmarean Brown is far from being the biggest wide receiver. He only stands in at 5-foot-9, 167 pounds. But where he lacks in size, he makes up for it with his play.
Now as a fifth-year senior, Brown realizes times are changing and players are only getting bigger. He’s gotten to see this first hand in spring practice with some of the incoming receivers joining South Carolina.
“I don’t know what these kids are eating nowadays but they’re huge,” Brown said, laughing. I wish I would’ve ate what they were eating when I was younger.”
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It’s a testament to the way the Gamecocks recruited. In the 2023 recruiting class, there were six receivers at least six feet or taller. And so far, they’ve been impressing in spring practice.
“They’re out there making plays. They’re out there having fun,” he said. “They look like they’ve been here before, and I just think that’s a testament to the coaches having these boys comfortable enough to come in here and just play and do what they can do.”
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As summer rolls around, more receivers will join the team that can’t be a part of spring practice. Brown believes it’s good for the younger guys to get reps that they might not have with everyone present.
“I think that they’re very excited about it because now they get a chance to show what they can do,” Brown said. “Some guys who may have not gotten many reps during the season or before, they’re now getting to show what they can do or regain things that they maybe messed up on before…I think it’s kind of been fun. This is some of our guys last year, so we get to watch everybody grow up a little bit, see how they were last year into how they are now.”
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Not only are the newcomers making an early impact but the guys who have been here are as well. In the offseason, South Carolina managed to keep its veteran core, consisting of Brown, Juice Wells, Dakereon Joyner, Xavier Legette, around for another year.
It’s a group that could be dangerous entering the new season. In the final three games of last year, they averaged 366.7 receiving yards. It might have been just a glimpse into what the future could look like.
But with so much talent to go around, it does beg an important question. How will offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains be able to find targets for everyone?
“I think we’re just trying to figure out what plays are going to fit for which guys and what are going to fit for others,” Brown said. “I think right now we’re just moving around, seeing what flows right, seeing how things look.”
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Despite it being a big challenge, Brown said Loggains has done a good job of simplifying things and allowing receivers to have a voice in what does and doesn’t work.
“The thing I like about him is we have a lot of opinions in the things that we want to do. If we go out and prove that it works or that if he likes it he’ll go with it,” Brown said. “He’s a real players coach. … He’s not going to go out there and make us do things that we’re not comfortable with, because at the end of the day, we have to go out there and play. And if we’re not comfortable it’s not going to look right. So he does a great job of keeping us comfortable, doing the right things to keep us engaged and having us do the things here and there to be successful.”
