Shane Beamer raves about dedication of Nyck Harbor to succeed in football

South Carolina wide receiver Nyck Harbor, widely labeled one of the fastest players in all of college football, made the tough decision to depart from the Gamecock Track and Field Team this offseason and focus solely on football for the remainder of his career. Through his first two seasons, Harbor boasts 38 catches for 571 yards and four touchdowns.

With the speedster putting all of his focus in football, many are expecting a breakout season from the Washington, DC native this year. South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer discussed Harbor’s decision to focus solely on football on Tuesday.

“I’m really proud of Nyck,” Beamer said. “He shared a lot of that with the players the other night and it was pretty powerful listening to him. People think ‘oh Nyck Harbor just gave up track to run football and that’s an easy decision to make.’ That’s not an easy decision to make when you talk about a guy that had the real opportunity to potentially run in the Olympics last summer and less than a year later he decides to give up track. He’s not just your everyday ‘I’m gonna go run on the track team and have a good college career.’ No, he could have run in the Olympics.”

Beamer reveals Harbor has improved greatly over offseason

“To give that up to solely focus on football… it’s hard to give up one of those loves and what I’ve seen is him give up that love and pour all that energy and emotion into football. That’s what he’s done with his work ethic on and off the field. He’s improved so much. He works so hard and he’s got a great mindset about the way he goes about his business.”

“He’s having fun out there. The plays he makes and special teams, he’s another one to watch him cover kicks as well. He’s a big guy that can run and he’s worked really, really hard. I’m proud of him because that’s not an easy decision to make.”

Harbor will be a legit weapon for South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers, who enters the season in the Heisman Trophy conversation. Harbor and Sellers connected on a memorable 31-yard touchdown with 1:11 remaining in last season’s nail-biter against No. 7 Alabama to make it a 27-25 game, but the Gamecocks were not able to convert the two-point conversion.

“It’s going to do wonders,” Harbor said back in March, via GamecockCentral. “I usually come back in July or August and try to ramp everything back up. I’m just smooth sailing. It’s really just going off of last year. I’m excited to do it.”

South Carolina opens its 2025 season against Virginia Tech in the Aflac Kickoff Classic in Atlanta, GA. Kick-off is scheduled for 3:00 PM on ESPN.