SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL

Dakereon Joyner was a jack-of-all-trades offensively last season.

As he gets into his second full season as a Gamecock, it looks like his role may be more of the same.

Joyner did a lot of different things for South Carolina last season, playing quarterback and receiver, and told new offensive coordinator, Mike Bobo, he’s open to doing that again.

“I got a chance to meet DK. I'm really impressed with him. He's a guy that wants to do whatever he can to help this football team,” Bobo said. “That was the first words out of his mouth. It wasn't I need to play quarterback. I need to do this. It was, ‘Coach, I want to help this football team. I want to do whatever it takes to help this team be successful’.”’

Joyner only played in eight games as a redshirt freshman, dealing with a hamstring injury and a concussion, but when he was in the game, he showed flashes of what he could do.

He rushed for 107 yards and a touchdown this year and caught six passes for 46 yards. When he was playing quarterback, he completed 16 of his 28 passes for 168 yards and averaged six yards an attempt.

Now comes Bobo’s turn to try and find a place for Joyner in the Gamecock offense next season to maximize his skill set.

“Right now our offensive staff's going through those things and evaluating our talent, evaluating our personnel as we continue to fit the pieces moving forward offensively and what we're going to look like and he's certainly going to be a huge part of it, I can assure you of that,” Bobo said. “And I'm excited to get him back on the field.”

Joyner had every opportunity to leave the program last year, after losing the backup quarterback battle to Ryan Hilinksi in fall camp, but stuck around and chiseled out a role on the team at receiver, then backup quarterback after Jake Bentley went down.

Right now, as the Gamecocks get ready for winter workouts and the start of spring practice in February, Joyner’s contribution is still to be determined.

Whatever the coaches come up with, there’s no doubt Joyner will run with it.

“Well, I think we'll continue to evolve as we move forward and exactly what Dakereon said to Mike and the conversations that I have, ‘What do I need to do to help the team? I want to get on the field and help the football team win’,” Will Muschamp said.

After spending the first bit of his time after accepting the job on the recruiting trail, Bobo now has the job of watching some film on the players he has coming back to see what the strengths and weaknesses of next year’s offense will be before the start of spring ball.

With Joyner, he’s liked what he’s seen so far.

“I just love the look in that kid's eye. I'm excited about seeing him this off-season. You know, in off-season conditioning and then when we get into spring ball.”