South Carolina wide recevier room shines despite early-season losses
South Carolina heads back to the drawing board after its second straight loss to start Southeastern Conference play.
Penalties against Missouri and turnovers against Vanderbilt have proved disastrous for the Gamecocks as the program looks for answers. However, through all the mistakes, South Carolina’s wide receivers have continued to shine.
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After four games, South Carolina’s offense features four wide receivers who average more than 10 yards per reception.
“It’s great competition in that room,” Beamer said on Sept. 14 during his weekly teleconference. “The competition in that room has made everyone better, I believe, and increased the urgency, there’s no doubt about it.”
Competition permeates throughout the room, causing shakeups in who sees the field week to week. Despite strong performances in the opening three games, freshman Donovan Murph saw limited action in South Carolina’s loss to Missouri.
“Again, practice matters. We’ve got a lot of playmakers that we want to get the ball, ” Beamer said.
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In Murph’s absence, fellow freshman Brian Rowe had a breakout game, catching three passes for 50 yards.
While Rowe had a strong performance, it was far from South Carolina’s best of the night in the room. Senior Vandrevius Jacobs racked up a season-high 128 yards alongside a touchdown on seven receptions in Saturday’s loss.
Jacobs’ performance on Saturday marked the second time he led the Gamecocks in receiving yards, an honor he’s alternated with Nyck Harbor in the season’s first four games. Harbor and Jacobs alone account for 425 of the Gamecocks’ 881 yards through the air. Additionally, they are the only players on the roster with 10 or more receptions.
If the Gamecocks want to continue their success through the air, they need to do better at establishing the run, quarterback LaNorris Sellers said.
“We’ve just got to run the ball, keep teams honest, really,” Sellers said. “If you run the ball, it’ll open up the pass game. If we can do both, it will be tough for defenses to stop.”