The sack champ is off the board.

Kyle Kennard, the Georgia Tech transfer who spent one season at South Carolina and elevated his NFL stock significantly by leading the SEC in sacks, is heading to the pros after the Los Angeles Chargers selected him with the 125th pick of the 2025 NFL Draft.

Kennard’s season was a strong contender for the greatest individual season by any Gamecock defensive player ever, and he earned national recognition for it. Kennard was voted SEC Defensive Player of the Year by both the AP and the league’s coaches, and was just the fifth Consensus All-American in South Carolina football history and first since Jadeveon Clowney in 2012.

On top of that he won the Bronko Nagurski Award as the nation’s top defensive player, the first Gamecock ever to win the honor.

He hit the ground running with 2.5 sacks and a forced fumble in the season-opening win over Old Dominion, and continued the momentum all year. Kennard was credited with at least half a sack in his first six games of the season, and recorded at least one full sack in eight of the 11 he appeared in.

For the season he totaled 11.5 sacks, 28 tackles and three forced fumbles, wrecking opposing offensive tackles and quickly becoming one of the most dangerous pass rushers in the country.

Kennard is the first Gamecock defensive end to get drafted since Kinglsey Enagbare went to the Green Bay Packers in the fifth-round in 2022.

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