Terrell Dawkins: Shane Beamer doing 'all the right things' at South Carolina
When South Carolina transfer Terrell Dawkins got to NC State he walked into a program that won four games the year before he and the rest of his recruiting class got there.
When he left two years later, the Wolfpack were 17-7 in two seasons with Dawkins a piece of why.
He’s been around a winning program and, while South Carolina is building its culture, he sees much of the similarities between NC State and the Gamecocks.
“That being said I feel like this is a similar vibe in a sense. I came from a program that’s kind of established the vibe they had there. Coming from a place like that and coming here, I can sense (it),” Dawkins said. “I came from a team that was bad and we progressed and now they’re good and I start to see that same progression here at Carolina. I picked up on it.
It’s one of the biggest reasons—along with Clayton White’s defensive scheme—drawing Dawkins to South Carolina.
And now the edge rusher will try to find a place in the Gamecocks’ defense at a spot needing players to step up.
He’ll try and fit in with returners like Jordan Strachan and Jordan Bruch and Hot Rod Fitten and thinks he can.
Dawkins battled injuries that limited him to just five games last season. In 2020, though, he had 36 tackles with 9.5 tackles for loss and five sacks. He also forced two fumbles.
He’s working heavily on his body and getting healthy and is already seeing progress.
“It’s gone well. I got my body composition last night and Kristin said I put on about 10 pounds of muscle and body fat went down one percent,” he said. “It’s all steps in the right direction. It’s only been six weeks so I can only imagine what I’ll be like in the summertime.”
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And Dawkins thinks with his Gamecocks edge group there are a lot of like-minded people.
As spring practice progresses and the summer workouts continue, Dawkins could develop into a leader of that group as well.
“I mean there’s a lot of great players on this team and a lot of people who feel the same way I do. It’s a slow process to get to that leadership role. It all starts with spring ball,” he said.
“To go more specifically on my position room, it’s trying to do extra stuff outside of practice and workouts…The more that happens, the more I get those things.”
Having Dawkins in that room will certainly help build the culture. And he can’t help but things at South Carolina are going in the right direction.
“With coach Beamer having a 7-win team in his first year,” he said. “That’s big. He’s doing all the right things, talking about all the right stuff. I can feel that it’s going towards the right direction.”
