Shane Beamer breaks down where South Carolina's offensive line stands after notable losses

The South Carolina Gamecocks are eyeing a College Football Playoff run after narrowly missing the field in 2024. The offensive line could hold the key.

The Gamecocks return some key pieces on the edge, but they’ll have to retool the interior of the line. It won’t be easy, but it’ll be 100% necessary if they hope to take full advantage of a returning starter at quarterback in LaNorris Sellers.

“I like it. You alluded to the tackles, and we’re returning a starter in Cason Henry on the right side and Josiah Thompson on the left side. Both of those guys are really good players and performed well for us,” coach Shane Beamer said recently on the Always College Football podcast. “Josiah was a true freshman last year. But we have depth there too. Tree Babalade is back for another year. He started as a true freshman back in 2023. He’s pushing Josiah and Cason, and they’re competing along with Jatavius Shivers as well. So that’s a really good competition.”

The tackles figure to be a strength. Few would question that heading into the season. Whether the guards and center will hold up remains to be seen.

“Certainly we lost our starting center and we lost both guards, and that’s the interior of your offensive line,” Beamer said. “But we’ve brought in some transfer guys. Boaz Stanley transferred in from Troy. We’re excited about what he did as our center during spring. Nick Sharpe from Wake Forest, Rodney Newsom from Western Kentucky.”

Can those additions help bolster the offensive line and keep the unit as a team strength this fall? We’ll see.

But Beamer feels pretty good about it. He explained why he’s so optimistic.

“If you look at our recruiting over the last few years, we’ve recruited really well on the offensive line,” he said. “And it’s time for those guys to be the players that we know they are, and that’s Markee Anderson, who we signed a couple years ago and had to beat everybody in the country for. And that’s Shed Sarratt, who we just signed as a true freshman and went through spring practice with us and has a chance to help us. Trovon Baugh, who started as a true freshman at guard back in 2023. So we’ve recruited well at that position, and there’s other guys there as well. Need those guys to step up.”

As far as a his overall assessment of the offensive line, Beamer provided a brief rundown to wrap his segment with Greg McElroy on the podcast. He summed up the group.

“We’re athletic there, I think, and we’ve recruited well,” Beamer said. “So I feel good about it. But any time you have to replace your starting center in Vershon Lee, who was our starting center since I’ve been here, basically, or a starter on the offensive line, that’s a concern. But I like the group we have and we’re fortunate, you’re right, that we have two tackles that have a lot of experience in this program.”