Interesting Roster Connections between Kentucky and South Carolina

The transfer portal has drastically shaken up college football rosters. It’s not unusual for players to suit up against their former teams. Kentucky has already encountered this phenomenon twice this season against Chip Trayanum (Toledo) and Tanner Lemaster (Eastern Michigan). That’s happening again this Saturday against South Carolina, but the connections run much deeper.

A Kentucky native will be suiting up in garnet on Saturday. Jordan Dingle made the move to Columbia this offseason after spending four years in Lexington. The tight end from Bowling Green caught 43 passes for 615 yards and four touchdowns as a Wildcat. It took some time for him to get into a groove this fall, but he earned his first start against Vanderbilt and has four receptions for 63 yards over the last two games.

“He’s been a lot more involved in the passing game lately,” Gamecock Central’s Jack Veltri told KSR Plus. “South Carolina has historically loved throwing to tight ends. We haven’t seen that as much this year. It’s been tough to get those guys involved. Keep an eye on Dingle because he has been getting targeted a little bit more recently.”

Kentucky has one player from the Palmetto State on its roster. Mikkel Skinner was the highest-ranked player in Kentucky’s 2025 recruiting class. A Top 10 player from South Carolina, the Gamecocks tried to make a play late in the game, but he ultimately remained committed to Kentucky. The true freshman has a dynamic skill-set, but has yet to carve out a role in Kentucky’s loaded tight end room.

Unusual Kentucky-South Carolina Coaching Connections

The 2020 meeting in this series was a forgettable one. Will Muschamp was fired seven games into the season, and Mike Bobo served as the interim head coach when Kentucky ran up the score in a 41-18 win. There was one remarkable aspect of that game. The offensive line coach on the other sideline was preparing to switch allegiances.

Less than two weeks after that game, Eric Wolford was announced as John Schlarman’s successor. Wolford was the offensive line coach in Columbia for Steve Spurrier in 2009, and returned to South Carolina from 2017-20.

That sort of connection in the coaching world isn’t too unusual, even though it is amusing that he has had two stints at Kentucky since the end of that Covid season. This connection is much crazier.

Shane Beamer has been the Gamecocks’ head coach since the 2021 season. Before arriving in Columbia, he was the special teams coordinator at Oklahoma. You know who else played special teams for Oklahoma in 2020? Kentucky running back Seth McGowan.

“This freaking running back they got coming in from Kentucky that will be here this weekend, you better wrap his butt up,” Beamer said earlier this week. “He and I were together at Oklahoma (in 2020). I know he runs with violence. We better get hats to the ball on this guy, or it’ll be another long night.”

Hopefully, they don’t get too many hats on him and McGowan runs wild against Beamer and South Carolina.