SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL

It didn’t take long for the rest of South Carolina’s offensive line room to know how good Dylan Wonnum could be, now he’s getting the chance to show Gamecock fans what he can do.

After enrolling over the summer, Wonnum made the quick jump into the team’s two-deep depth chart and is now firmly planted as the team’s right tackle.

He made his first career start Saturday and didn’t play like a freshman.

“Dylan did outstanding. He’s just really poised, played in the moment and understood what he had to do,” Jake Bentley said. “He was really just locked in what he had to do…Really did a great job all game.”

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Wonnum waited his turn to get in the lineup, playing sparingly over the team’s first six games before overtaking Blake Camper as the team’s right-side anchor.

He posted a 60.8 overall grade, his highest against an SEC opponent, and allowed just one pressure in 58 snaps. Wonnum was also part of an offensive line that paved the way for 240 rushing yards Saturday.

His performance was good enough to earn him SEC Freshman of the Week honors, which he was able to share with his brother D.J., who was the SEC’s Defensive Lineman of the Week.

It’s the first time brothers have earned weekly honors in the same week in SEC history.

“It was wild,” D.J. said. “When I first got the news I was like, ‘man that’s crazy.’ It’s an honor to be able to do things like that. It was shocking.”

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But the more impressive thing about Wonnum is the fact that he didn’t play like a freshman in his first extended game action.

Almost every offensive player said there’s a different sense of maturity about him, something D.J. said has really come along since enrolling at South Carolina.

It takes another kind of maturity and talent to play offensive line as a freshman and not something every player can do; Wonnum is the first freshman lineman to start under Will Muschamp and the first to start since 2015 when Zack Bailey did.

When Bailey found out Wonnum was starting, the last true freshman lineman to play offered some sage advice.

“I told him to play his game and have fun,” he said. “That’s what they told me when I was that young and playing as a true freshman. Being able to go out there and have fun, just go out there and play and have fun. You’re going to mess up and that’s OK.”

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Malik Young said the youngest Wonnum has all the makings of a “great player” and, with Wonnum continuing to take first team reps this week, he’ll get another chance to showcase that again this weekend against Ole Miss.

“Any time a freshman comes in and plays in a big game like this, an SEC game, it’s big. I think he’s got natural ability, he’s smart and makes good decisions,” Donell Stanley said. “We have confidence in Dylan and like what he did tonight.”