OPINION: 'Depth Dilemma' Forming At Three Positions For South Carolina

South Carolina's Football team has had some recruiting misses at three certain positions which could catch up to them in the very near future.

When pundits and analysts around the college football sphere talk about the top championship contenders, both conference and national, you tend to hear specific phrases utilized when emphasizing what separates those teams from the rest of the pack. One of them is 'competitive depth,' where a team posses both quality starters and backups who can step in and keep the drop-off in production to a minimum.

For the South Carolina Gamecocks, there are certain positions where competitive depth is rapidly being built, particularly at the quarterback and offensive line positions. There are other positions, however, where, due to some recruiting misses and bad luck, Carolina is set to see a massive drop-off beginning in 2024 or 2025.

Let's start with the position set to undergo the most drastic changes this coming offseason: the wide receiver position. The Gamecocks are set to lose three players to eligibility exhaustion: Xavier Legette, Ahmarean Brown, and Eddie Lewis, and in a worst-case scenario, could lose Antwane Wells Jr. to the NFL. While South Carolina has signed some players who have shown some promise, they've only reeled in one four-star prospect since the end of the 2020 recruiting cycle, and that's current WR commit Mazeo Bennett.

The program has also undergone some scrutiny as far as recruiting the running back position is concerned. While Montario Hardesty reeled in 2023 four-star running back Dontavious Braswell this past cycle and is set to bring in a highly productive three-star back in Matthew Fuller, the Gamecocks are about to see Mario Anderson Jr., Dakereon Joyner, and Juju McDowell all walk out the door over the next two offseasons, and need more than two backs they can rely on.

The last position is the defensive tackle position, which is exceptionally top-heavy as far as experience goes, with only half of their top four players, Alex "Boogie" Huntley and TJ Sanders, possessing more than one year of eligibility after the 2023 season. This admittedly is a position where recent recruiting misses could be rectified quickly in the form of 2025 targets Elijah Griffin, Amare Adams, and Bryce Jenkins.

This is not meant to scare fans into thinking that the sky is falling in Columbia by any means, but if Shane Beamer and his staff want to see their roster be on par with some of the top teams in the SEC, these three positions are ones where recruiting must see an uptick in the near future.

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