In a typical year, the bulk of South Carolina’s class would have been signed, sealed and delivered now. This year, the Gamecocks have a long way to go, and that’s by design.

South Carolina only inked seven to start early signing day under new head coach Shane Beamer, in large part to keep some flexibility there and leave a lot of room for additions in the later signing day in February.

Now comes the part where Beamer has to decide which holes are the most important to fill first, and he has a little bit of an idea where to go.

“You look at it, and you guys know, we need to improve the depth at the wide receiver position. That’s an area where we have to continue to get more bodies and find more playmakers,” Beamer said Wednesday. “There are some good, young players in the program already that I’m excited to work with. I know they’re excited about it as well. We have to add depth at that position also.”

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Receiver seems like the more obvious position offensively with the Gamecocks struggling there all season, and a lot of the other positions were on the defensive side of the ball.

Beamer mentioned linebacker being one of those positions of need with Ernest Jones declaring for the draft and two seniors—Sherrod Greene and Damani Staley—on the roster.

“The linebacker position, that’s certainly going to be a thin position as we sit here today whether it be through graduation or whatever other scenarios are out there with linebackers,” he said. “We have to create depth and get some more bodies at linebacker for sure. We’re under there from a scholarship standpoint from where we’d like to be.”

Beamer also mentioned getting more defensive backs—both corners and safety—and guys who can cover in space. The goal, he said, is to add depth because the Gamecocks are losing Jaycee Horn and Israel Mukuamu.

There’s also going to be an emphasis on bringing in edge rushers as well to compliment some other pieces the Gamecocks have in their front seven.

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“Pass rushers up front. That’s a need for us,” he said. “We have some great, great defensive linemen and outside linebackers that can go and are extremely talented but need to get some more guys who can help those guys as well.”

South Carolina signed seven members of the 2021 class and will now begin exploring high school prospects who haven’t signed, JUCO players and transfer portal additions to round out its class.

“There’s not a position we’re saying, ‘We’re good.’ I don’t mean that in a negative way,” Beamer said. “We’re trying to improve depth hand trying to improve competition at every single position. Wherever is a strength we’re trying to make even stronger and an even bigger strength.”