South Carolina's transfer wideouts extend praise to, develop close relationships with Mike Furrey
South Carolina’s wide receiver room will look much different than it did last season in 2024. And those changes are not just limited to the Gamecocks’ roster.
Following the departures of Juice Wells and Xavier Legette to the transfer portal and NFL Draft, respectively, South Carolina needed to replenish its supply of wideouts. It did so with five incoming transfers and two freshmen.
But the Gamecocks will have a new coach leading the positional group, too. Former wide receivers coach Justin Stepp left the program in February to hold a similar position at Illinois. Mike Furrey, who previously served as the head coach at Limestone, filled that vacancy three weeks later. This came after James Coley, who was originally hired as the new receivers coach, left for Georgia about a month into his time in Columbia.
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Because of these changes, both Furrey and transfer wide receivers like Jared Brown, Dalevon Campbell and Gage Larvadain will be new to South Carolina this upcoming season. Although they have only been together for a few months, Furrey has already created close bonds with the team’s newcomers.
“I got the utmost respect for Coach Furrey. I love him. He’s a hard coach. He has expectations that he wants you to meet, and you got to have expectations for yourself that are higher than his. And he pushes you to that,” Campbell, a transfer from Nevada, said. “The way he talks, the way he does things, you want to run through that wall for him, and you want to be the best for him and the team. He’s a great coach.”
Larvadain said Furrey’s humble nature and experience playing professional football has impressed him.
“I love Coach Furrey. He’s a down-to-earth guy. He’s trying to teach us more about life than football, which is very important,” Larvadain said. “I mean, he’s a guy who’s done exactly kind of what everyone in our room wants to do. Who wouldn’t want to listen to a guy who already played in the NFL, led the league in receptions, played offense, played defense? He’s a great mentor, for sure.”
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Furrey played as both a wide receiver and safety during his seven-year NFL career. His transition as a two-way player was most apparent across the 2005 and 2006 seasons, which he spent with the St. Louis Rams and Detroit Lions, respectively.
In 2005, Furrey recorded four interceptions, returning one for a touchdown, as a member of the Rams’ secondary. He then proceeded to catch 98 passes for 1,086 yards and six scores as a wide receiver one year later.
Brown said Furrey’s experience at both positions provides a unique advantage for South Carolina’s wide receivers.
“Coach Furrey played some years in the league, both sides of the ball, so he can teach us about defenses and about offenses, and what he was able to experience and what he was also able to bring to the table as a player and a coach,” Brown said.
Furrey’s demeanor and coaching philosophy has provided Campbell with an additional source of motivation, he said.
“He’s really demanding, and I love that. He has high expectations for me, and I love that, too,” Campbell said. “It’ll be 6 a.m. on an off day, and he’ll call me talking about, ‘Let’s go.’ Just that whole expectation, that whole drive that he’s got, makes me want to go harder.”
