Nyck Harbor 'did some good things' in South Carolina Saturday scrimmage
When injuries arise, the next man gets his chance to step in and take care of business. It happens to every team. It would’ve been unlikely for South Carolina to make it through fall camp without any injuries. In its case, Juice Wells and Trey Knox will miss some time this preseason.
And with those playmakers out, some younger names will have more reps to show what they can do. Specifically, Nyck Harbor.
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Through eight practices, Shane Beamer has felt good about where the highly-touted freshman is at right now.
“Now through eight practices, most everything’s in from an instillation standpoint. We’ve got a couple situational things that we’ve got to install but as far as the bulk of the offense it’s in,” Beamer said. “So now his head can quit swimming a little bit and just line up and let’s go play as we hone in on things the next few weeks.”
South Carolina had its first scrimmage of the fall on Saturday, and Wells and Knox were noticeably absent. But it gave Harbor the chance to do more on the field.
“I thought Nyck did some good things. We got him out there and he operated efficiently,” Beamer said. “I noticed him when we did punt, what we call ‘punt pressure’ the unit that goes up against our punt team noticed him on that. A guy with his speed and size, you think would be pretty good at being able to block punts and spring returns for the punt returner. So he did some good stuff in that and working at receiver.”
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It’s still a good bet that Harbor would find his way onto the field regardless of injuries. Standing at 6-foot-5, 230 pounds, he imposes a challenge for any defender with his size and speed.
From what Beamer saw, he described him as being “a tough kid.”
“Some of these track guys sometimes, they just want to come out there and run fast and shy away from contact. Not that guy,” Beamer said. “He is tough and he is physical.”
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Teammates and coach describe Harbor–an Olympic-level sprinter who will run track at South Carolina–as the fastest player on the team.
“Torrian (Gray) was kidding with me the other day that Nick Emmanwori is upset because Nick felt like he was the fastest guy on the team. And now Nyck Harbor’s come in and kind of apparently taking that mantle. So there’s great competition in practice,” Beamer said.
“And every time I see any kind of one-on-one rep going on with Nyck Harbor there’s a pretty good chance that Nick Emmanwori is out there competing against him, which is going to make both those guys better.”
