When Dakereon Joyner lost out on the backup quarterback spot, he could have easily transferred and no one would really faulted him.

But, in an age where the transfer portal dominates headlines, Joyner decided to stick around and move to receiver. But, thanks to some injuries at quarterback, Joyner was forced to play quarterback where he battled a hamstring injury of his own.

“It’s tough. I wasn’t healthy at all last year. I had to battle through and do what I had to do,” Joyner said. “I think the offseason was big for me getting healthy with the strength coach and athletic trainer program helped me and did a great job getting me healthy.”

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Now, Joyner is a full-time receiver and is working to get up to speed at the receiver position so he can make an impact in Mike Bobo’s new offense this season.

And, in the five spring practices the Gamecocks had before things were shutdown was making some strides.

“DK Joyner’s shown toughness,” Bobo said. “He’s learning how to play the position and learn how to run routes and not be as robotic as when you’re thinking about running the route and how to run it. I think he’s going to get better as time goes on.”

He didn’t get the chance to play a lot of receiver last year as the team’s backup quarterback, but when he was there were flashes of what he could do.

He caught six passes for 46 yards and had 29 carries for 107 yards.

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Now he’s hoping he can build on that entering this season and use the full lead up to the season preparing to play receiver and utilize his full skill set.

“I know I’m explosive,” Joyner said. “With the ball in my hands I’m electric; I think everyone knows that. I just have to get the basics down with route running. Once I get that down I think it’ll be over with.”

Joyner spent a lot of time this offseason looking at some film from Gamecock receivers who came before him like Deebo Samuel and learning route running from guys like Shi Smith and Josh Vann.

Jaycee Horn actually compared Joyner’s body to Samuel and said he was impressed with what he saw from Joyner in the first few days of spring ball.

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“He’s stepped it up with his route running,” Horn said. “He’s starting to get the gist of it. I feel like he’s going to be a major help in the pass game.”

The Gamecocks will need Joyner to step up and help an offense that struggled last season and help replace one of the Gamecocks’ best receivers of all time in Bryan Edwards.

They’ll try and do it with Bobo, who’s in his first season at South Carolina.

“With his concepts he does a lot of cool things outside and inside,” Joyner said. “That’s one thing about the offense, you never know what’s coming.”