Josh Vann looks like 'totally different player'
Josh Vann sat at a table in the South Carolina indoor facility, the fluorescent lights buzzing on top of his head.
A relaxed smile creeps across his face as reporter after reporter approaches him for interviews, creating a very stop-and-go FaceTime call with his girlfriend.
When asked if he thought he would be sitting there at media day a year ago, all Vann could do it laugh.
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“I don’t even know what I would say…My sophomore year I wasn’t doing—excuse my language—a damn thing. It be like that,” Vann said.
“ It happens. Everybody doesn’t come out of high school and play right away and doing what they thought they’d be doing. I know the type of player I am and I knew eventually it would happen.”
But Vann’s appearance there, among the bigger names on the Gamecocks’ roster, is a testament to him and the season he had last season.
He turned in his best season yet in Columbia and is expecting more in his fifth season.
Vann caught just 47 passes for 377 yards and a touchdown his first three years. Last year he ultimately racked up career-highs in catches (43), yards (679) and touchdowns (6).
That’s almost a direct reflection of his high school career, having to wait until his junior year before jumping on the scene.
“It’s crazy, man. It’s like high school all over again. In high school, my freshman year I was still trying to find my place on the team and learn the offense,” Vann said. “I didn’t get until my junior year to showcase what I could do. Then after my junior year I had my senior year. now going through college it’s like the same thing.”
South Carolina now expects him to contribute heavily in a very crowded receiver room.
The competition with the both the returners and newcomer class has ratcheted up Vann’s game as well.
“He keeps sharpening his tools as a route runner and learning different ways to get open,” Marcus Satterfield said.
“He’s done that. All the competition in that room has only made him better…He’s a totally different player than he was at the end of the season last year. he knows if he doesn’t go out there and produce he’s going to be watching somebody else do it. It’s really raised his game up.”
And Vann thinks he’s up for the task.
“I feel like I can impact a lot, man,” he said. “I know if I get put in positions where I can go dominate I can help the team out. It’s not me having the ball. I know I can create decoys for my teammates.”
