Report: Former South Carolina QB Connor Shaw collapses while coaching son's football team

Former South Carolina quarterback Connor Shaw collapsed Wednesday night while coaching his son’s football team, according to a report from The State’s Jackson Castellano. He is receiving treatment at Prisma Health Greenville Memorial Hospital, though his condition is not yet clear.

Shaw was coaching his son, 9, at the time of the incident. Details are still scarce, but multiple people who said they were in attendance wrote he left the field via ambulance.

Shaw starred for the Gamecocks from 2010-2013, turning in his best season as a senior when he threw for 2,447 yards and 24 touchdowns, to one interception. He then won the Capital One Bowl MVP when he threw for 312 yards and three touchdowns while adding a receiving touchdown and a rushing score.

During his playing career in Columbia, Shaw set the South Carolina record for wins by a quarterback while totaling 6,074 yards and 56 touchdowns over his career. He was selected for the Gamecocks’ athletics Hall of Fame in 2021.

Following his college career, Shaw turned professional, though he went undrafted in the 2014 NFL Draft. He had stints with the Cleveland Browns from 2014-15 and Chicago Bears in 2016 before eventually getting into coaching.

Shaw joined Furman as tight ends coach in 2018 and returned to South Carolina as the program’s quarterbacks coach for the final three games in 2020. That same year, he served as the director of player development and became the Gamecocks’ director of football relations in 2021.

Over the summer, Connor Shaw participated in a golf tournament – the BMW Charity Pro-Am in Greer – and discussed his expectations for South Carolina in 2025. He specifically offered high praise for LaNorris Sellers, whom he called “special” while speaking with the Greenville News.

“LaNorris is what college football is gravitating towards,” Shaw said, via Todd Shanesy. “He’s big (6-foot-3, 240 pounds) and mobile and smart and can make all the throws. And he’s young. He’s only played so much ball. I think he’s going to play this game for a long, long time.”