Shi Smith has already had a solid three seasons in the Garnet and Black.

But head coach Will Muschamp is hoping the Gamecocks' senior wide receiver has saved his best for last.

"Shi Smith is going into his senior year and he needs to break out," Muschamp said earlier this week during an appearance on "Off Campus” with Mark Packer on SiriusXM 84. "Shi had a great freshman year. I think he had good sophomore and junior seasons and he needs to have a great year for us."

The top returning receiver on the team, Smith will need to step into a more prominent role this season after being overshadowed by Deebo Samuel in 2018 and Bryan Edwards in '19. Those two are, of course, now in the NFL, leaving a void for Smith and several other receivers to step up and fill.

A former four-star prospect from Union, S.C. considered the best receiver in the state in the 2017 class, Smith has been a contributor since he stepped on campus even if not to the levels of Samuel and Edwards.

As a true freshman, Smith hauled in 29 passes for 409 yards and three touchdowns. He added 45 catches for 673 yards and four scores in 2018 - arguably his best season - before hauling in 43 for 489 yards and two touchdowns last year.

To put in perspective what type of production the Gamecocks might need out of Smith, Edwards had 71 catches for 816 yards and six touchdowns last season. The year prior, Samuel caught 62 passes for 882 yards and 11 touchdowns adding in a passing touchdown and kickoff return score too.

New offensive coordinator Mike Bobo will look to extract more production this season from Smith, who will have had three different play-callers in his four seasons in Columbia and has been arguably underused in the eyes of many.

The playmaking ability has been evident, certainly in spurts, but will need to be on display more often if an offense that struggled, especially towards the end of the season, is going to get back on track this year.

"I would think that would be (number) 13 for us right now," Bobo said this spring, referring to Smith when asked who was his best deep threat. "Shi’s a guy that’s shown speed. He caught a long touchdown today, which was good to see. We’ve been working a lot of short passes and took a couple shots today and were able to hit him over the top of the defense he’s got some speed. That’s the thing we need around here. We need guys that can stretch the field with speed."

Smith, who has 117 career receptions for 1,571 yards in 34 career games, enters the 2020 season as the Gamecocks' clear top receiver but he'll need others to step up and play the role he's been in previously as the second and third options to the top target.

That should fall on the shoulders of some combination of returners Xavier Legette, Josh Vann, OrTre Smith, Dakereon Joyner and Randrecous Davis and newcomers Rico Powers, Ger-Cari Caldwell, Mike Wyman and Jaheim Bell, a combo tight end/wide receiver.

"We need to keep OrTre Smith and Dreak Davis healthy," Muschamp said. "Josh Vann needs to take a step forward going into his junior season. Xavier Legette who played a lot for us as a true freshman is a very difficult guy to cover and is a really good athlete but he was a high school quarterback and he had never played the position before so that takes a little bit of time.

"And then Dakereon Joyner is a young man that we moved from the quarterback position to the quarterback position and again last year with Jake Bentley's injury, we had to move him back to quarterback, so he didn't get the reps that he could have had, but I thought he did some really good things in spring ball."