Observations From South Carolina's Fifth Spring Practice

South Carolina's Football team took the field for their third practice in full pads on Thursday morning. What were the notable takeaways?

The South Carolina Gamecocks were lively on the outdoor practice field behind the Long Family Football Operations Center on Thursday afternoon, as the Gamecocks are now nine days into their Spring practice slate. With plenty of position battles ongoing and a team looking to take yet another step on the field this coming fall, there are plenty of intriguing storylines to follow with Shane Beamer's squad.

What were the biggest takeaways from the Gamecocks' fifth practice of the Spring?

An Early Look At Starting Group

Sometime in the middle of the open portion of Spring practice, Shane Beamer grabbed a microphone and eagerly called for a 3rd-Down series, which consisted of three plays and gave everyone in attendance a look at who the first team consisted of on both sides of the ball.

Offense (11 personnel or one running back and one tight end)

QB: Spencer Rattler

RB: Juju McDowell

Outside WRs: Antwane "Juice" Wells and Xavier Legette

Slot WR: Ahmarean Brown

TE: Joshua Simon

OL (From left to right): Jaylen Nichols, Nick Gargiulo, Vershon Lee, Trai Jones, and Tyshawn Wannamaker

Defense (Nickel Base or 4-2-5)

Edge: Bryan Thomas Jr.

Interior DL: TJ Sanders and Alex "Boogie" Huntley

DE: Tyreek Johnson

LBs: Debo Williams and Stone Blanton

Outside Corners: O'Donnell Fortune and Marcellas Dial

Nickel Corner: Kajuan Banks

Safeties: DQ Smith and Nick Emmanwori

The Stars Of Beamer Ball?

Right after the whole team completes their warmup or flex period, a good portion of the players go to individual special team drills, with the potential kick and punt returners going to the far end zone to catch balls from a jugs machine or the specialists themselves. When watching this group work, these were the players spotted in both groups.

Kick Returner: Mario Anderson Jr., Xavier Legette, and Juju McDowell

Punt Returner: Ahmarean Brown and Jalon Kilgore

Miscellaneous Notes

Other than what was listed above, there were a couple of other interesting tidbits to take away from practice. I noticed Trey Knox's right ankle was heavily taped while going through positional unit drills, which could signal that he's dealing with something in his lower body. However, he seemed to be a full participant. 2024 commits in both wide receiver Mazeo Bennett and quarterback Dante Reno made it in to watch the Gamecocks practice on Thursday morning.

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