Coming out of spring, Shane Beamer wasn’t shy about saying the Gamecocks needed to be better in the vertical passing game.
South Carolina finished near the bottom of the conference in pass plays of at least 10 yards, and needed to be better from an explosive play standpoint.
It hasn’t been perfect through a week of practice—nothing will be—but so far so good with a veteran receiver stepping up as an explosive threat.
“When I think about deep balls and explosive plays? Jalen Brooks, Jalen Brooks and Jalen Brooks. He had a heck of a day earlier this week in practice. Give credit to him. I don’t know what the narrative was. I guess in the past he had a ball that he dropped in one of his first games. I’ve heard about that,” Beamer said.
“He had a play the other day where we ran a post route with him and he was wide open and wasn’t able to make the catch. The way he responded from that was he came right back and had the very next day the game-winning touchdown in a two-minute drive, an explosive play in practice and an explosive play in practice. He’s done a great job.”
Brooks has opened up about his struggles last year, saying it was one of the hardest years of his life, and came out better on the other side as he tries to take the reigns as one of the Gamecocks’ starters this season.
Right now he’s running with the first team with two other receivers who’ve been in the program for a while.
“He, DK and Josh Vann coming out of spring were probably our top three receivers,” Beamer said, “and I haven’t seen anything that’s changed that.”
With those three seemingly the top three, the battle to get into the receiver rotation is intensifying with Beamer excited about the progress of a receiver who’s battled injuries most of his career and a young receiver.
“I’m really excited about OrTre Smith. He’s made some really impressive, really competitive catches this week in practice and plays along the sideline where he had to go up and it’s a 50-50 ball he came down with. I like what he’s done,” Beamer said.
“Xavier Legette is a big, physical body out there that’s done a nice job. Rico Powers has flashed. Peyton Mangrum and Trey Adkins did a nice job in the spring and they continued on as well. I like that group. They’re hungry and working hard.”
Smith battled a subluxed knee for two seasons and opted out in 2020 with 42 career catches for 420 yards but just 12 catches for 94 yards the last two seasons he played.
Legette showed promise as a freshman with nine catches for 80 yards and a score but only had seven catches for 113 yards in four games last season while battling injuries.
The Gamecocks are less than three weeks away now from their season opener with a week full of practice this week before another scrimmage Saturday night to further gauge how far this receiver group has come along.
“They’re nowhere near a finished product. We have to do a better job protecting the football offensively: the wide receivers, the running backs, the tight ends and guys carrying the ball,” Beamer said. “As far as making plays in the passing game those guys have made some, and they’re going against a defensive back group that’s done a nice job of getting the ball out.”
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