The nickname is self-explanatory.

Jaron Willis has always been fearless, and thus earned a title from a young age.

"If you tell him you want to go scuba diving with sharks out there, Jaron is going to try to swim past the sharks," his youth football coach Ivory Williams told GamecockScoop. "There ain't nothing he won't try. I call him the daredevil."

His "daredevil" reputation grew on and off the field, with his love for outdoor activities and his tenacious nature in the middle of any defense. You can pinpoint a lot of reasons for it. Size, speed, work ethic. All the football reasons most players who reach this level have.

The redshirt sophomore linebacker thinks it comes from something else, a three-word motto he sums himself up with.

"It's like I always say," Willis started. "It's that South Georgia mentality."

Albany, Ga., is big by South Georgia standards, but not many others. At just under 67,000 residents, it is the 13th largest town in Georgia and less than half the size of Columbia. Ray Charles put it on the map, but you still have to go out of your way to find it. It is around three hours south of Atlanta and 90 minutes from Columbus, a town on the way to other towns if one ever existed.

Like many small communities straddling the region, it fights its past. The city's founder was an ardent segregationist, and those effects are still visible almost 200 years later with wealth inequality and poverty.

In more modern times, the 2008 recession significantly harmed a town more dependent on manufacturing than its agricultural neighbors.

"We always told him [Willis] with your size, that's a ticket to get out of here," Williams said. "Because a lot of our kids are at-risk. He started taking football more seriously once he saw where he could go with football."

If the so-called South Georgia mentality applies to anything, it is football. The sport carries a tribal obsession rivaling anything you might find on an episode of Friday Night Lights, and has made it one of the hotbeds of national recruiting. Places like Valdosta, now famous after the Netflix series "Titletown USA" in 2021. Colquitt County, home of South Carolina's Kamaar Bell and countless other future collegiate stars. In total, Shane Beamer's roster has nine South Georgians including walk-ons.

"It means he eats, sleeps and breathes football," Williams said. "That's a South Georgia mentality."

Lee County High School is technically in Leesburg, Ga., just a stone's throw from Albany. It is home to Willis and his Gamecock teammate, Juju McDowell.

"He was a dog in high school," McDowell said about Willis. "He's a bigger-bodied guy, quick twitch, fast off the edge. He's been doing as much as he can to help the team. If everything plays out right, he is going to make a lot of plays for us this year."

Willis enrolled at Ole Miss in 2022, but never really found his footing. He redshirted in a crowded defense, only appearing in one game. He came into the program as a cornerback with linebacker size, and the tweener status did not help.

The combination of not playing and not fitting took its toll, eventually leading him to the transfer portal after one year.

"Mentally I could say in the past being at Ole Miss, it was just draining," Willis said. "I was just trying to find my place in college football, and right now everything is clear headed, getting ready for a new upcoming season and a new opportunity. That's what I can say about football — it's a land of opportunity."

Through seven games at South Carolina, it was more of the same. Even an official move to linebacker did not change his fortunes. Until the Texas A&M game in late October, he still had not touched the field with his new team.

Then, the most significant scheme change on either side of the ball in the Shane Beamer era. Defensive coordinator Clayton White broke out a 3-3-5 defense to mix with his traditional 4-2-5 look.

An extra linebacker spot.

He was far from the only benefactor, but Willis saw his playing time turn on a dime. After not playing once prior, he played every game the rest of the way.

"Just me having a defensive back background, I can be more of an athlete," Willis said. "I can be like that extra DB on the field. And then what makes me unique personally is my mentality of playing football. I like to strike people. I like to hit. That's the South Georgia mentality."

His passion comes back to his chases.

The mental chase to carve out a niche in college football, changing schools to reshuffle the deck. The physical chase of playing linebacker, a position built on ball-seeking and closing down space quickly. And, of course, his emotional chase for the people back in Lee County, trying to use his gifts to impact them positively.

"Everything he does is always about his family," Williams said. "He always talks about what he wants to buy his mom, his dad, his grandparents, He's big on family, and he has a big support system. That's what keeps him thriving to try to be the best you can be."

Naturally, one of his biggest hobbies has a chase element. Specifically hunting, about as South Georgian an enterprise as possible. The patience required to find a spot and wait. Sometimes minutes, sometimes hours. Even when nothing happens, you return to it and try again, pursuing the adrenaline of the moment.

Linebacker instincts apply in both places.

"I would say that plays into football, just that mentality," Willis said. "Sometimes you can't just go attack your prey. When I [last] went deer hunting and I saw this one deer, I wanted it so bad because I'd been out there for three hours trying to find a good spot. When I finally saw that one deer I wanted to take a shot, he was just standing there. I just settled in and had that mentality of, 'I've got to get him.'"

He is still chasing, working to carve his place on the turf, in his deer blinds and everywhere else.

And doing it with that same South Georgia mentality.

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