Gamecocks Begin Rebuilding TE Room With Florida Transfer
Nick Elksnis announced his decision to enter the transfer portal back on November 15th, and then reiterated that on December 7th, saying that his 6'6" frame is "now 250, with 3 years of eligibility." With several recent openings in the TE room for South Carolina following the departures of Austin Stogner and Jaheim Bell to the transfer portal, and Nate Adkins running out of eligibility, while Traveon Kenion has since retired from football, it was clear that the Gamecocks were going to need to pursue options in the portal to go along with 2023 commits Connor Cox and Kamron Sandlin.
The first piece of that puzzle fell into place today when Nick Elksnis announced his commitment to South Carolina following an on-campus visit Thursday where Elksnis met with the staff and players as they began to prepare for bowl practice.
Elknis is rated a 3-star in the current Rivals Transfer rankings. When he originally signed with the Gators, 1standTenFlorida had this to say about his game:
"Elksnis is one of the more overlooked commits in UF's class who could end up making a significant impact at the Swamp.
The Duval County native is fluid and operates like a bigger wide receiver at the tight end position. He is typically more athletic than the linebackers covering him and does a good job of selling his routes by sticking his foot in the grass to create separation. This is a new-age tight end who could flourish in a pass-happy attack like Dan Mullen's."
Obviously, things didn't quite work out that way for the Jacksonville native, but he'll get a renewed chance at making an offensive impact with South Carolina, whose new OC Dowell Loggains seems focused on spreading the ball around to playmakers, and he has also worked closely with TEs during his last two years with Arkansas.
Elksnis has seen limited action thus far in his college career, appearing for just 61 snaps over two years for the Gators, but notching no catches to date. It's important to note that he probably would've seen more action this season, but was limited by "an upper-body injury."
